Gabby Ramirez's Virtual Excursion Reports 2023

Report 1: Suggestible You - You Can't Believe Everything You Think (Erik Vance)

One of my virtual excursion reports is based on a NCASVideo featuring Erik Vance. His presentation takes his audience through the complex world of the human thought process, with elements of placebos, hypnosis, and false memories. His storyteller voice and presentation helps the crowd stay intrigued as he explains the revolutionary science behind our minds which are more gullible than we think. Vance explains to us how we can find ways or better understand how our brain can recognize belief and deception. Throughout the entire presentation, he highlights the incredible capabilities of the human brain and describes our brain as “prediction making machine” because it takes the past and “applies it to the present to predict the future”. His talk revolves around this “prediction” or more so “expectation” that our minds develop in order to find patterns and even make predictions of the future. He even goes so far to think about the effect of placebo and nocebo effects. He differentiates the difference in both effects as follows: placebo effects are understanded as “believing something good will happen to you” and nocebo effects are understanded as “believing something bad will happen to you”. He states that belief alone is what leads to these physiological changes and these effects play a pivotal role in belief. Expanding on his idea of belief, he connects these ideas to cultural practices such as faith healing, shaman, and their incorporation of transcranial magnetic stimulation. Faith healing is the belief that spiritual faith can lead to physical healing and is more understood through expectation. Here he suggests that the power of belief is crucial to the effectiveness of faith healing and he says the placebo effect and the positive effects/outcomes that some individuals experience believe in the healing power of faith. He also talks about his experience with shamans which are healers who often use rituals and ceremonies to aid physical and mental ailments.

Personally, I found his overall argument and evidence to be pretty convincing. I find that kind of topic very interesting because it focuses on the relationship between the human mind and belief. His case is very compelling because sometimes it’s overwhelming to think about the influence certain things can have over our beliefs, behaviors, and thoughts. His ability to incorporate real-world examples, cultural contexts, and findings from scientific studies, overall makes his case that much believable. I think since he incorporated things such as the placebo effect and the nocebo effect, it made his talk that much more understandable. These are concepts we hear about all the time when talking about medicine and the credibility of faith healing. I think just like any other argument, even the strongest ones, can benefit from acknowledging some of the counterarguments or different perspectives to overall strengthen it. With any argument, you have to be prepared for criticism and skepticism so being prepared for that would’ve been helpful. From what I observed, I don’t think there were any errors in reasoning and his argument was pretty strong for the most part. He does a good job of talking about how our minds can be easily influenced, giving us a lot to think about. I think it’s important to be critical when talking about scientific ideas and Vance handles this complicated topic well.

Report 2: The Science of Fake News (Bruce Press)

Another one of my virtual excursion reports is based on a NCASVideo featuring Bruce Press. In his presentation, he focuses on the nature of misinformation that usually penetrates the media and takes over beliefs of its audience. In his talk, he incorporates forms of information such as propaganda, mistakes, conspiracy theories, and plain lies that are being told and spread throughout the media. He tries to highlight the awareness of “fake news” and its lasting and determinantal impact on society. Press includes his own experience researching conspiracy theories and explains to the audience that misinformation has been more invasive in recent years. He states that even though “fake news" seems to appear more recently, it has silently been existing in the U.S. media alongside our factual news. In his talk, he includes emphasis on the historical roots of “fake news” and the branches of it that we see now in our society. As a viewer, Press’s talk is very convincing because of the different forms of misinformation he includes but as well as his incorporation of his own research. He even includes an anecdote about Donald Trump reviving a rumor during the presidential campaign, highlighting the potential political ramifications of fake news. Additionally, his talk critiques the misinformation surrounding the size of the crowd at President Trump's inauguration, using it as an example of how misinformation can propagate even in the face of clear evidence. The speaker emphasizes the importance of distinguishing between opinions and facts in everything. I think overall he avoids logical fallacies and critical thinking failures, and instead he includes specific examples of misinformation that provides a good examination of it. These real-world instances and examples serve as illustrations of the argument he is trying to make in more practical implications rather than just theoretical concepts. This allows his audience to further enhance their understanding of the topic but still makes his talk credible.

Overall, I found Bruce Press’s presentation “Unmasking Fake News” to be compelling and really interesting. It offered an exploration of the concept of misinformation that can be presented and is in our media today. I think his talk was important because it spread awareness or showed a sense of awareness about the diverse nature of “fake news”. I think he offers a good analysis of misinformation which gives insights about its historical context and contemporary prominence. The talk was successful because it encouraged its audience to think critically about the impact of “fake news” in their lives and the effects of it on our society.