Let's keep on with our discussion regarding the long hoax of Piltdown Man.
Why did it take so long for anthropologists to discovery that Piltdown Man was basically some jerk who fused together the jaw of an orangutan and the skull of a modern human? I know it's easy to look at this with hindsight and say "how could people be so foolish?" but there is another factor to consider here which plays into the hands of fraudsters.
Everyone is familiar with the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" (a story we will revisit in the future). I will not go into it on this post. But, we know that everyone could see that the Emperor was naked and only the revelation from a small boy who, unburdened by social pressures, was able to blurt out that the Emperor had on no clothes. Once he did this, of course, everyone else felt fine to make the same proclamation.
Science sometimes works the same way. Entire careers have been built on mistaken assumptions and, although science is supposed to be self-correcting, sometimes even scientists are reluctant to admit that their professional careers are sometimes built on false foundations (forgetting, of course, that science often advances as much by learning what is not is true by learning what is true).
Fraudsters often rely on the well known psychological base that people will sometimes do everything to avoid looking foolish, even innocently continuing a fraud.
So - back to Piltdown Man - the answer is that some people did indeed build their careers on Piltdown Man and were reluctant to admit that it was a fraud, even when it became obvious.
Have a great and fraud-free day.
http://www.tauskvega.com
------------>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene tausk
Why did it take so long for anthropologists to discovery that Piltdown Man was basically some jerk who fused together the jaw of an orangutan and the skull of a modern human? I know it's easy to look at this with hindsight and say "how could people be so foolish?" but there is another factor to consider here which plays into the hands of fraudsters.
Everyone is familiar with the story of "The Emperor's New Clothes" (a story we will revisit in the future). I will not go into it on this post. But, we know that everyone could see that the Emperor was naked and only the revelation from a small boy who, unburdened by social pressures, was able to blurt out that the Emperor had on no clothes. Once he did this, of course, everyone else felt fine to make the same proclamation.
Science sometimes works the same way. Entire careers have been built on mistaken assumptions and, although science is supposed to be self-correcting, sometimes even scientists are reluctant to admit that their professional careers are sometimes built on false foundations (forgetting, of course, that science often advances as much by learning what is not is true by learning what is true).
Fraudsters often rely on the well known psychological base that people will sometimes do everything to avoid looking foolish, even innocently continuing a fraud.
So - back to Piltdown Man - the answer is that some people did indeed build their careers on Piltdown Man and were reluctant to admit that it was a fraud, even when it became obvious.
Have a great and fraud-free day.
http://www.tauskvega.com
------------>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>gene tausk
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