Denny VrandečiΔ‡6d ago

"Maria and Peter are students and meet up for a late dinner. Peter asks Maria whether Tom is at the party that they intend to go to after dinner. Maria answers that Tom is at the party. After all, Tom had told her that he would be at the party. When they arrive at the party, it turns out that Tom had changed his plans, and is not at the party. Was Maria's answer true or false?"

#truth #philosophy #cognition

(please spread for visibility, I would like this to be as wide as possible)

1/2

Maria's answer was true
Maria's answer was false
Poll ends at .
Show threadDenny VrandečiΔ‡6d ago

A new study shows that there is much, much less agreement on the answer to this question than I would have expected. Even after reading about the study, I still expect people in my bubble to have the same answer as I do. Let's see. But this probably means that the meaning of truth, in the general population, is simply different from what I would have assumed. And explains a number of public discourses.

2/2

https://reason.com/2026/05/15/the-surprising-divide-over-what-counts-as-true/

New study investigates why people disagree about what's true

A new study finds that what people think about facts, authenticity, or coherent beliefs explains why they disagree about what is true.

Reason.com
Show threadBob Blaskiewicz πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±
@vrandecic Seems like a false (true?) dichotomy: true, false, uninformed/incomplete
May 20 at 5:48pmWeb
Show threadMorgan ⚧️6d ago
@rjblaskiewicz @vrandecic it is uninformed, but it's still false. He was objectively not there.
Show threadBob Blaskiewicz πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±6d ago
@raphaelmorgan @vrandecic True. :)
Show threadBob Blaskiewicz πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±6d ago

@raphaelmorgan @vrandecic

This last semester, my students and I were reading about the psychology behind "the dress" and one of the articles noted the dozens of processes that take place before you become aware of the color. The idea was that it's not even a decision. The brains of people who worked outside saw it one way and those whose brains compensated for artificial light saw it another way. Baseline understanding of concepts are similarly filtered, apparently....

Show threadBob Blaskiewicz πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±6d ago

@raphaelmorgan @vrandecic

So, following from that, there are a lot of notions, ideas, and predispositions that filter what gets assigned the feeling of "obviously and inarguably true." That said, I am inclined to agree with you. :)

Show threadMorgan ⚧️4d ago
@rjblaskiewicz @vrandecic if I found out (I think I did at one point and forgot) what colors the dress actually were, I would still say that the picture appears the other set (when it does--my perception of it wasn't consistent), but the dress itself still would not be those colors. The example doesn't quite fit though imo, because colors are more subjective than "is X at Y". If I was asked if the dress was at least partially in the picture, any argument that it's not would confuse me.
Show threadBob Blaskiewicz πŸ‡ΊπŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¨πŸ‡¦ πŸ‡¬πŸ‡±4d ago

@raphaelmorgan @vrandecic

I getcha. :)