Meaning of Gell-Mann Amnesia effect | Babel Free

Definitions

The phenomenon of a person trusting newspapers for topics which that person is not knowledgeable about, despite recognizing the newspaper as being extremely inaccurate on certain topics which that person is knowledgeable about.

Examples

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect works as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward-reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them. In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story-and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read with renewed interest as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about far-off Palestine than it was about the story you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

“I believe the Gell-Mann Amnesia Effect applies here.”

“It was a variation of the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect, where people realize that news stories about their areas of expertise are simplistic or inaccurate, but completely trust news stories about topics they know nothing about.”

“One positive thing to come out of the Trump era is that another media critic, whom I am related to by marriage, has noted that we might be seeing the end of Gell-Mann Amnesia.”

“Then, while reading other stories for which you have actual knowledge, keep the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect in mind.”

“Whether it is Gell-Mann Amnesia, groupthink, the dominant paradigm as defined in the book The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, or mass formation psychosis acting alone or in synchrony, don't let your mind go there. Think for yourself.”

“Yeah. In some ways, it reminds me of the inverse of this thing called Gell-Mann Amnesia.”

CEFR level