PRE-TEST

The ouija board also known as a spirit board or talking board, is a flat board marked with the letters
of the alphabet, the numbers 0–9, the words "yes", "no", "hello" (occasionally), and "goodbye",
along with various symbols and graphics. It uses a small heart-shaped piece of wood or plastic
called a planchette. Participants place their fingers on the planchette, and it is moved about the
board to spell out words. According to Hasbro, players take turns asking questions and then "wait
to see what the planchette spells out" for them. Following its commercial introduction by
businessman Elijah Bond on July 1, 1890, the ouija board was regarded as a parlor game unrelated
to the occult until American spiritualist Pearl Curran popularized its use as a divining tool during
World War I. Paranormal and supernatural beliefs associated with Ouija have been harshly
criticized by the scientific community, since they are characterized as pseudoscience. The action
of the board can be parsimoniously explained by unconscious movements of those controlling the
pointer, a psychophysiological phenomenon known as the ideomotor effect. As a part of the
spiritualist movement, mediums began to employ various means for communication with the dead.
Following the American Civil War, mediums did significant business in presumably allowing
survivors to contact lost relatives.

False-belief task is based on false-belief understanding which is the understanding that an

individual’s belief or representation about the world may contrast with reality. To gain the ability
to attribute false belief: it is suggested, one must understand how knowledge is formed, that
people's beliefs are based on their knowledge, that mental states can differ from reality, and that
people's behavior can be predicted by their mental states. Numerous versions of the false-belief
task have been developed, based on the initial task done by Wimmer and Perner (1983).

In the most common version of the false-belief task often called the "'Sally-Anne test". To pass
the task, the child must be able to understand that another's mental representation of the situation
is different from their own, and the child must be able to predict behavior based on that
understanding.

Adults can also experience problems with false beliefs. For instance, when they show hindsight
bias, defined as: "the inclination to see events that have already happened as being more
predictable than they were before they took place." In an experiment by Fischhoff in 1975, adult
subjects who were asked for an independent assessment were unable to disregard information on
actual outcome. In experiments with complicated situations, when assessing others' thinking,
adults can be unable to disregard certain information that they have been given.

The first thing their review turned up is the importance of “backfire effects” - when telling people
that they are wrong only strengthens their belief. In one experiment, for example, researchers gave
people newspaper corrections that contradicted their views and politics. The corrections were not
only ignored – they entrenched people’s pre-exising beliefs. The irony is that understanding
backfire effects requires that we debunk a false understanding of our own. According to
Lewandowsky and Cook, communicators assume a 'deficit model' in their interactions with the
misinformed. This is the idea that we have the right information, and all we need to do to make
people believe is to somehow "fill in" the deficit in other people's understanding. Just telling people
the evidence for the truth will be enough to replace their false beliefs. Beliefs don't work like that.
Psychological factors affect how we process information – such as what we already believe, who
we trust and how we remember. Debunkers need to work with this, rather than against if they want
the best chance of being believed.

The most important thing is to provide an alternative explanation. If you try and debunk a myth,
you may end up reinforcing that belief, strengthening the misinformation in people's mind without
making the correct information take hold. What you must do, they argue, is to start with the
plausible alternative. If you must mention a myth, you should mention this second, and only after
disclaimer that you're about to discuss something that isn't true. This debunking advice is also
worth bearing in mind if you find yourself clinging to your own beliefs in the face of contradictory
facts.

Regarding Ouija boards, personally I have never participated in any game that involves invoking
the presence of the supernatural because of my weak aura. I also don’t believe the soul of the
deceased person we want to communicate with will come when we call upon it but the malicious
spirits will turn up instead, pretending to be that person. It is a rare occasion that the real person
shows up. Most people play this game for fun, not realizing the consequences of their actions,
especially if they are non-practitioners of magic or witchcraft. Linking Ouija boards to false
beliefs, it is partially true that some of it is pseudoscience and cannot be proven through concrete
facts and psychological experiments. For the other part, some of it is true because of a personal
experience I had a few years ago which required me to be exorcised although I never participated
in any sort of game or ritual. You can’t explain spiritual diseases through science. You have to
experience it for yourself to believe it. The thing with movies is that they tend to exaggerate and
over dramatize these supernatural entities when in real life it is rare that it will be able to physically
harm you.

In conclusion, capitalism has exploited the horror genre in Hollywood movies and Halloween.
People like scaring themselves which is weird. I think being exposed to things like this is a curse.
It can drive you nuts knowing that what you’re experiencing is illogical and cannot be explained
through scientific facts. Perhaps as science progresses, we may be able to understand more about
this subject and differentiate on what is true or not. For now, just take it with a grain of salt.
Reference

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ouija

www.bbc.com/future/story/20141113-the-best-way-to-debunk-myths