If a Lot of People Believe a Thing It Must Be True

If a lot of people believe a thing it is probably or must be true is a classical cognitive bias and logical fallacy. It is an offshoot of the obvious proposition that a lot of a falsehood (or that a lot of people believe a falsehood) does not make the falsehood less false or true, nor does it make it more false, though it is a bit strange to think of it in those terms. If something is wrong, in error, or false, what any one or any ten million people believe about it, makes no difference, it is still false. This bias is most often observed in social circles when rumors about a particular person which are false start to become believed as true as more and more people are exposed to the falsehood. It only takes one person to express belief in the falsehood to trigger this domino effect. And once the dominos begin to fall it becomes harder and harder to stop them from falling and they fall faster and faster and faster. It is so easy to fall into his trap, particular if you are the victim of such false rumor mongering and you are searching for ways to fight back against your accusor or accusors. You may pick up certain pieces of information (beliefs of others), and you may believe them as well, but they may very well be false. Even if you hear the same beliefs expressed by others, even many others, that does not change their truth value. The belief could still be false or wrong or in error. Do not use the fact that many people tell you they believe something to assign it a high probability of being true, for it has no higher probability of being true than a thing which is believed by only one person. A belief is not a fact and this is a thing which is very hard to remember and very hard to disentangle in actual practice. When does a belief become a fact? A question that has been asked by philosophers since time immemorial with no answer yet forthcoming. A favorite of many is a belief becomes (is) a fact when it corresponds with reality, when it is actually the case. It is phrased a million different ways of course, but no matter how you parse it, ultimately it begs the question, what is reality and who is the judge of reality? Isn't reality just what we all believe about what is real? and thus we are brought back full circle to beliefs and have made zero progress.

Despite the philosophical morass it is still important to challenge the truth or falsity of belief statements with as much rigor as you can muster. It is just way too easy to accept them as true or false because you hear the same belief expressed by a ton of other people. Especially if these are people you trust or are your friends, colleagues, relatives, etc. Belief statements expressed to you by the people closest to you should be challenged the strongest of all simply because you are most likely to be tricked into accepting a falsehood as true because of the nature of your relationships with the people closest to you. You trust them. But a person you trust can believe a falsehood just as easily as your worst enemy. Moreover they can tell you they believe this falsehood but you still must not simply accept it as true without challenge because it could be false. Never forget your worst enemy would and could do the same as your closest ally and confidant. Both may have and express beliefs which are false. That one is your enemy and one is your friend does not change that brute fact. Do not forget it. It could save your bacon one day.