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Mini: Evidence of Bigfoot? · Why We Do What We Do

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to Why we do what we do. Welcome
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  Speaker 1: to Why we do what we do?
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  Speaker 2: Mini.
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  Speaker 3: I am your host Abraham, and I'm your O Shane.
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  Speaker 3: We are a psychology podcast. We talk about the things
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  Speaker 3: that humans and non human animals do, and so far
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  Speaker 3: we haven't really embraced what rocks do or what space
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  Speaker 3: dust does or anything like that.
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  Speaker 4: We could do now the project Aile Mary's out.
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  Speaker 3: We could talk about amazing, amazing, amazed, good good good,
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  Speaker 3: But anyway, we talk about psychology things, which is humans
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  Speaker 3: and animals. I think at the time that this releases,
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  Speaker 3: this will either be right before or right after an
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  Speaker 3: episode where both of them are accidentally themed around sort
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  Speaker 3: of logic and truth. And that's what this is also
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  Speaker 3: sort of about. But this is a and we release
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  Speaker 3: minis on Mondays. The short length episodes just do a
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  Speaker 3: quick dive into that topic and then get out of
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  Speaker 3: there something we feel like we can handle in like
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  Speaker 3: a nice ten to fifteen minute conversation. Sure, joining us
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  Speaker 3: for the first time, Welcome, Hope you enjoy what you
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  Speaker 3: hear in this conversation. If you're a turning person, and
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  Speaker 3: welcome back. So glad you continue to seek us out
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  Speaker 3: in your podcast listening experience. And either way, if you
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  Speaker 3: leave us a rating and a review like subscribe, Tell
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  Speaker 3: a friend. I'll talk more about that at the end
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  Speaker 3: of this discussion. But this is a mini so we're
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  Speaker 3: going to dive into it. Although I feel like I'm
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  Speaker 3: missing a preamble thing, anything I need to impart here.
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  Speaker 2: No, I think we can get into it all right.
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  Speaker 3: Those are the things I want to start with. The
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  Speaker 3: simple fact that is important that everyone be well aware of.
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  Speaker 3: You probably are, but I'm just going to say it.
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  Speaker 3: You know, and that is expertise and something does not
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  Speaker 3: inherently make you good at everything.
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  Speaker 2: Sure, that is a caveat that.
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  Speaker 3: I think we hear someone's an expert, therefore I can
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  Speaker 3: trust their opinion about whatever they might express their opinion.
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  Speaker 3: And that's just really not the case. There are people
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  Speaker 3: who are experts and things that are actually kind of
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  Speaker 3: bad at other things, and that's probably most people. Because
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  Speaker 3: you're an expert in the thing, you're an expert in. Now,
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  Speaker 3: hopefully as part of your training to become an expert,
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  Speaker 3: you learn some humility about what your capabilities are with
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  Speaker 3: respect to areas you are not an expert in how
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  Speaker 3: I often say, I'm like one of the things I
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  Speaker 3: learned in grad school, one of the most important lessons
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  Speaker 3: I picked up early on was wow, I know a
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  Speaker 3: lot less about this than I thought I did. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: it is just yes, you learn how much you don't
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  Speaker 3: know about something is a tremendously valuable lesson. The amount
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  Speaker 3: that we don't know that we don't know is huge,
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  Speaker 3: and learning a lot more about what you don't know
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  Speaker 3: is very, very valuable. So anyway, right, being an expert
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  Speaker 3: in something does not make you good at everything. So
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  Speaker 3: let's talk about Jane Goodall.
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  Speaker 4: Jane Goodall Good Yeah Yeah was a widely recognized, world
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  Speaker 4: renowned English primatologist and anthropologist.
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  Speaker 3: She was an expert. She spent more than six years
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  Speaker 3: observing and studying chimpanzees. She completely revolutionized how science thinks
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  Speaker 3: about chimpanzees specifically and animals in general, and made many
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  Speaker 3: wonderful contributions on her topic. She was the best, and
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  Speaker 3: she knew a lot about it.
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  Speaker 4: Yes, and we owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude
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  Speaker 4: for all of her tireless work. And she said on
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  Speaker 4: many occasions that she believes in Bigfoot. However, her argument
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  Speaker 4: was logically flawed, and we're gonna explain why. So again,
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  Speaker 4: she is not somebody who studies bigfoot. She is somebody
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  Speaker 4: who studies chimpanzees. Yeah, which arguably is a different species.
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  Speaker 4: One is a cryptid, one is real. I mean, we
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  Speaker 4: could explain why, we can get into all of it.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, and importingly, like we're saying, it's not that the
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  Speaker 3: contributions she made were not of a value because she
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  Speaker 3: said crazy things every once in a while, what she
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  Speaker 3: did was important, Like we don't, we can't, we should not,
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  Speaker 3: and cannot downplay her expertise in chimpanzees because it's she
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  Speaker 3: said something weird about something else, the poison the well,
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  Speaker 3: sort of logical right argument there. So anyway, let's talk
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  Speaker 3: about Jane Goodall. She was born in nineteen thirty four
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  Speaker 3: in Hampstead, London. She was apparently interested in Africa for
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  Speaker 3: most of her life, and when she was twenty four
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  Speaker 3: she saw and received funding to study primate anatomy at
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  Speaker 3: a university and was eventually able to secure funding to
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  Speaker 3: go to Africa. At that point she was twenty six
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  Speaker 3: and actually be amongst her subjective interest which was primates
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  Speaker 3: and chimpanzees.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, she had extremely little training or education in science,
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  Speaker 4: but was very curious and open minded, and she meticulously
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  Speaker 4: observed and recorded her observation. It's a very promising natural science.
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  Speaker 4: Some people just naturally view the world like this. Yeah,
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  Speaker 4: it just so happened that this was a very good
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  Speaker 4: field for her to get into.
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  Speaker 3: Not a lot of formal training at the time that
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  Speaker 3: she went here, but she was just she was curious
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  Speaker 3: and she was open minded. She's like, I'm just gonna
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  Speaker 3: record everything I see. I'm going to take it all in,
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  Speaker 3: accept it for what it is, and just try and
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  Speaker 3: construct them most cohesive understanding of the situation. I can
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  Speaker 3: great natural science approach beautiful, like she just had that
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  Speaker 3: innate curiosity. Great, she's good at it. And there's a
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  Speaker 3: lot to say about Goodall's life. But this is a
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  Speaker 3: mini so let's cut to the chase. As we said,
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  Speaker 3: in several interviews, she stated she believed in Bigfoot, which
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  Speaker 3: surprised a lot of people. So I'm gonna read one
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  Speaker 3: of her quotes from one of these interviews directly. She said,
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  Speaker 3: I'm not gonna do her English accents. I'm just so
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  Speaker 3: bad at those but she said, I would like to
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  Speaker 3: believe in Bigfoot. I would like bigfoot to exist. I've
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  Speaker 3: met people who swear they've seen bigfoot. And what I
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  Speaker 3: think is interesting, on every single continent there is an
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  Speaker 3: equivalent of bigfoot or sasquatch. And that's the whole quote.
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  Speaker 3: And then she went on to like list various continents
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  Speaker 3: that have a version of an ape man type creature
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  Speaker 3: in those cultures.
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  Speaker 4: Sure, and I mean I think that that's a fun
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  Speaker 4: thing to think about, like that we've got bigfoots and
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  Speaker 4: swamp apes and yeah, and all those things. YETI is
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  Speaker 4: my particular favorite. So real quick, here's an ad for
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  Speaker 4: YETI brand coolers. I'm just kidding. I don't even know
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  Speaker 4: if they did. It was probably like car insurance or something.
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  Speaker 4: YETI brand car insurance. I hope everything that we do
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  Speaker 4: is just YETI branded. Right now, anyway, we're talking about
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  Speaker 4: Jane Goodall in her kind of belief that you know,
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  Speaker 4: she finds it interesting that there's like these big foot
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  Speaker 4: type creatures on all these continents, and she said there
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  Speaker 4: is quote something there and that we have to believe them.
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  Speaker 4: She also said that she likes to keep an open
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  Speaker 4: mind and that humans have a hard time believing there
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  Speaker 4: could be other intelligent humanoid creatures because we are so
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  Speaker 4: egocentric about quote unquote intelligence.
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  Speaker 3: So those are all fair points. By the way, aren't
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  Speaker 3: you using a YETI brand microphone?
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  Speaker 4: Yes, I am, Yes, I am, yep, perfect, excellent, beautiful,
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  Speaker 4: That was perfect. I totally forgot until you just said that.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you for that.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, So anyway, Yeah, like, I think those sentiments are
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  Speaker 3: totally valid. Keep an open mind. Let's, you know, at
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  Speaker 3: least hear people out and like let them, you know,
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  Speaker 3: consider that they have something valid to share that we
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  Speaker 3: sometimes get too wrapped up in our own hubrious about
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  Speaker 3: how special we are in the cosmos. All valid points,
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  Speaker 3: That's fine. The primary argument she's made is that there
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  Speaker 3: are these stories about some kind of Bigfoot like creature
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  Speaker 3: all over the world, in every culture, or at least
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  Speaker 3: many many cultures, and what that suggests, in her opinion,
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  Speaker 3: is that there must be some truth to those stories.
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  Speaker 3: And to be fair, she said she doesn't know that
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  Speaker 3: there is a Bigfoot, only that she thinks that there
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  Speaker 3: is and would like there to be. Okay, So there's that.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, Yeah, I like that sentiment in general, Like I
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  Speaker 4: want to believe, Yeah, very much, so X files related.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 4: There are a couple of logical problems with the argument
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  Speaker 4: that a lot of people reporting on something boost it's
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  Speaker 4: probable veracity. And the first thing is that we look
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  Speaker 4: at is just because a lot of people believe something,
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  Speaker 4: it doesn't make it true. If fifty one percent of
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  Speaker 4: people believe in sale clause, does that mean Santa Claus
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  Speaker 4: is probably real? No, most people on Earth believe in
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  Speaker 4: some sort of gods, but that doesn't make the gods real.
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  Speaker 4: On the flip side, if most people on Earth believe
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  Speaker 4: that there were no gods, would the believers except that
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  Speaker 4: as evidence that they're likely isn't a god?
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  Speaker 2: Of course? Not right.
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  Speaker 4: They only accept it as evidence when it works in
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  Speaker 4: their favor. This is the logical fallacy with a name,
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  Speaker 4: the bandwagon logical fallacy, or argumentum add populum, which is
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  Speaker 4: my favorite spell, the idea that a lot of people
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  Speaker 4: agreeing about something makes that something more likely to be true.
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  Speaker 4: That's essentially what that fallacy is. A lot of people
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  Speaker 4: think that the Earth is flat. It is demonstrably absolutely
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  Speaker 4: not flat. Those people are wrong.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, that's that's the crust of it is, just like
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  Speaker 3: just because a lot of people believe it does not
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  Speaker 3: mean that it's likely to be true. And a second
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  Speaker 3: problem here is that many people around the world agreeing
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  Speaker 3: on something might actually be kind of an indictment on
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  Speaker 3: its possible veracity in this particular example, like most rare
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  Speaker 3: animals like these ones that are very hard to find
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  Speaker 3: and very hard to study, they're unique to a specific place.
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  Speaker 3: Most cultures around the world have some sort of cryptids.
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  Speaker 3: That doesn't make those cryptids true. Most cultures around the
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  Speaker 3: world have stories about ghosts. That doesn't make ghosts real.
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  Speaker 3: If there is this unique, extremely rare, extremely elusive creature,
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  Speaker 3: wouldn't it mostly be regional? How would it be the
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  Speaker 3: case that it would be in all these sort of
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  Speaker 3: hidden spots, not a culturally variable monster thought to have
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  Speaker 3: been spotted at a distance behind a bunch of foliage
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  Speaker 3: by unreliable resources, which is the only way it seems
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  Speaker 3: to have ever existed. So it feels like, would this
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  Speaker 3: have been spotted at least sometimes in a particular region,
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  Speaker 3: That would make it a little bit more believable rather
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  Speaker 3: than it just being like a folk tale that is
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  Speaker 3: somewhat unique across a variety of cultures.
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  Speaker 4: Right now, this brings us to Okam's razor. What is
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  Speaker 4: the more likely scenario? Humans are patterns seeking creatures who
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  Speaker 4: tend to anthropomorphize things and see familiar patterns and ambiguous stimuli,
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  Speaker 4: and those patterns tend to look like us. Or there's
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  Speaker 4: an elusive mystical creature that some people claim to have observed,
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  Speaker 4: but for which there is not a single shred of
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  Speaker 4: hard evidence on the entire planet. I think we would
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  Speaker 4: argue the former than the latter.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, Like, does it make more sense that we tend
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  Speaker 3: to anthropomorphize things that we tend to see human shapes
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  Speaker 3: and things, particularly in situations where it's difficult to discern
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  Speaker 3: what's actually happening, or that there's this mythical creature that
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  Speaker 3: we have no evidence of it all?
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  Speaker 2: Sure?
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  Speaker 3: Right, Like, we're not making the case that there's not
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  Speaker 3: a bigfoot.
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  Speaker 2: There isn't.
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  Speaker 3: But that's not the case we're making. We're what we're
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  Speaker 3: pointing out is that the argument is just illogical.
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  Speaker 2: Right.
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  Speaker 3: Goodall was an expert in chimps, in chimpanzees, and she
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  Speaker 3: made many important contributions to science. She was a great scientist.
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  Speaker 3: She just was not an expert in logic. And she
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  Speaker 3: happened to be easily tricked by her own biases and agenda.
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  Speaker 3: It happens to the best of us. All we can
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  Speaker 3: do is learn to be on the lookout for how
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  Speaker 3: we trick ourselves into believing things that are wrong, Like
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  Speaker 3: believing that RFK Junior is not being puppeted by some
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  Speaker 3: worm hell bent on this destruction of mankind. He definitely is.
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  Speaker 4: Absolutely see he is just a human mech for a worm.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, the worm found a meat suit in RFK Jr.
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  Speaker 3: And is just driving around trying to destroy all of
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  Speaker 3: us quite successfully.
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  Speaker 2: It's the ratituy.
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  Speaker 3: Wormatui. Yeah, yes, that is that is perfect, Yeah, exactly
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  Speaker 3: exactly that. So anyway, all that is to say, just
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  Speaker 3: logical arguments here, you know, it's just it's just thinking logically,
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  Speaker 3: just saying that, like it could be true because a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people believe it. No, that's that is not
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  Speaker 3: a reason. It could be true. And it could be
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  Speaker 3: true for other reasons. It's not, but it could be,
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  Speaker 3: but people believing it is not one of them. That's
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  Speaker 3: just not evidence. So right, all right, we did that
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  Speaker 3: in appropriate amount of time. If you would like to
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  Speaker 3: end of our full length episodes, I read the names
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  Speaker 3: of those very cool people as a shout out to
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  Speaker 3: them for helping us continue to be a podcast, because
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  Speaker 3: we do really appreciate it and depend on everyone's help.
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  Speaker 3: So thanks to them. Writing in fact checking from Shane
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  Speaker 3: and myself, thank you for recording with me today.
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  Speaker 2: Shane, Hey, thanks for having me.
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  Speaker 3: Our social media coordinator is Emma Wilson and our god
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  Speaker 3: Emperor editor who stitches together these podcasts into a listenable
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  Speaker 3: format is justin.
• 12:59
  Speaker 2: Thank you, justin, Thank you for being the best.
• 13:01
  Speaker 3: Yes, is there anything that I'm missed or you would
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  Speaker 3: like to add before we wrap up our discussion about
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  Speaker 3: this evidence or lack thereof regarding bigfoots.
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  Speaker 2: No, that covers it.
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  Speaker 3: Thank you all for listening.
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  Speaker 2: This is Abraham and this is Shane.
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  Speaker 3: Why we Do what we Do? Mini is out.
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  Speaker 2: Bye. You've been listening to Why We Do What We Do.
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  Speaker 1: You can learn more about this and other episodes by
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: going to WWDWWD podcast dot com.
• 13:25
  Speaker 4: Thanks for listening and we hope you have an awesome day.