What Does Literature.....

For my literature review I will be researching the unknown of space. What possible life could be out there? This could be good and/or bad. For example if we find a planet that is livable for us it could help us in the in the future if Earth gets overpopulated. But also, there could be something that is a threat to Earth. But it could be good in some sense for us to know and get prepared for it. So my statement is what does literature say about the unknown of space.

Editorial Bias

Throughout the article “Does Everything Happen For A Reason,” Konika Banerjee a graduate student and Paul Bloom a professor, both of psychology at Yale, explain what people think about if things do really happen for a specific reason, which also represents the bias of confirmation of what the people think throughout the situations the article states. One example they state is about the Boston Marathon Bombing. James Costello was cheering on a friend during the marathon when the bombs exploded. He was severely injured and was in surgery and rehabilitation for months. But during the months he formed a relationship with one of the nurses and they soon became engaged. James said on Facebook, “’I now realize why I was involved in the tragedy. It was to meet my best friend, and the love of my life.”’ This is an example of confirmation bias because it shows that in James’ point of view the Boston Marathon Bombing happened for a reason because he would have never met the love of his life.

Another form of confirmation bias that was stated in the article was when they asked many people on how would you reflect or describe how that special moment happened in your life. For example, births of children, finding your love, the death of loved ones, illnesses, graduations, etc. A majority of the religious people said these things do happen for a reason. Also, that they are purposefully designed (by God). Surprising many atheists did so as well; also many atheists said they believe in fate. Fate is defined as the view that life events happen for a reason and that there is an underlying order to life that determines how events turn out.

They also described confirmation bias in kids. How young children show bias to believe that life events happen for a reason, or in other words to ‘“send a sign”’ or ‘“to teach a lesson.”’ “This belief in children exists regardless of how much exposure the children have had to religion at home, and even if they’ve had none at all.”

In human nature we tend to see meaning in life events: “our powerful drive to reason in psychological terms, to make sense of events and situations by appealing to goals, desires and intentions.” When we think about the actions of other people, this drive serves us well because it helps us figure out why people behave as they do. But it can also lead us into error when we overextend it which makes it seem like an illusion that the world itself is full of purpose and design. It makes us move toward the view that the world is a fundamentally fair place, where goodness is rewarded and badness punished.  

Article- http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/19/opinion/sunday/does-everything-happen-for-a-reason.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3Aw%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A14%22%7D

Interview of Max Albert

During class I took the time to interview Max Albert. During that time I noticed many qualities about him. He told me his hobbies, likes & dislikes, etc. Throughout this interview I learned a lot about him and what kind of person he is.
A question I asked Max was "What adjective(s) describe you? Explain." He responded with a single word, "Jewish". With no explanation. Just by this answer I can already assume that he is religious and he is proud of his religion. Other characteristics and personality traits I learned about him was that the text slang "kk" absolutely gets on his nerves and gets him very annoyed.  Another question I had for Max was, "What is the most creative, complicated thing on your bucket list?"  His answer to my question was, being a train conductor. Not so much the driving of trains and the experience of it, it's just because of the clothing he would wear. When I asked, "Do you have a big family," and "are you close to them?" he responded with,"Yes, I have a very big family". Also, he said he is overall pretty close to them. One of my final questions I asked him was,"Have you broken any bones and how?" He responded with how his knee got shattered because both his and another person's knee collided with each other but only his shattered, sadly. Also, a main dream of his is to be rich and very successful. Throughout this I learned that Max is very unique in many different ways.

Bucket List Item

The Bucket List item that I chose to do was to eat a food that I have never tried before and which I think is disgusting or I think looks or smells nasty. So I chose to eat salmon because my mom said a lot of people don't like salmon and also I'm not a big sea food kind of guy. So I ate it, it was okay like at first but the after taste was just really salty. I probably won't eat it again.