- Would you rather stab a photo
of your family five times,
or stick your hand
in a jar full of cockroaches?
According to one scientist,
your answer may predict
how likely you are
to believe in
conspiracy theories,
UFOs, and a whole host
of magical beliefs.
And more importantly,
it reveals something
about why Americans
are so divided.
- I don't think American
politics are simply divided
between left and right,
between red states
and blue states.
Rather I think there's
another dimension.
Intuitionists.
And rationalists.
(slow mysterious music)
- [Cara] Area 51.
It's been ground zero for
UFO Conspiracy theories
for decades.
- Classified
experiments involving
extraterrestrial technology.
- [Cara] Today, we're headed
to the top-secret
Air Force base
with a group of true believers
to learn what aliens have to do
with intuitive thinking.
- We're headed to the back gate
to the base.
For many, many years,
the government simply
denied its existence.
- Anything that
talks about UFOs,
it never enters
mainstream media.
- It's the biggest
secret there is.
They work together,
the government and
the extraterrestrials.
- It's just a firm
belief of mine,
I've known since I was a kid.
- [Cara] These folks
are what Eric Oliver
refers to as intuitionists.
- They go with their gut,
they're attracted to
symbols and metaphors.
They orient their
understanding around the world
based on what they're feeling
over scientific beliefs.
- All of us are intuitionists
to one degree or another.
When you just have a
feeling about something,
that's your intuition talking.
- Your hair standing up?
That is your instinct.
- [Cara] When we
feel anxious or afraid,
- I got a bad
feeling about this.
- [Cara] our brain
conjures up stories
that help explain why we feel
the way we do,
and what we can do about it.
- The last thing we
need is bad luck.
- [Cara] These
stories are examples
of what psychologists call
magical thinking.
They might not hold up
to scientific scrutiny,
but they give us tools
to restore our sense of control
and manage our stress.
- There are studies of
people being deprived
of control, being made
to feel like they
don't have control.
And under those circumstances,
people engage more
with superstitious
kind of views.
Not only that,
but people are more likely
to endorse conspiracy theories.
These are all manifestations
of our desire to
understand our environment
and to feel like we can exert
some control over it.
- [Cara] Professor
Oliver had a hunch
that some people are
measurably more intuitive
than others.
- [Man H olding Camera]
Everybody say "E.T.!".
- [All] E.T.
- [Cara] And those
folks would be more prone
to both magical thinking
and conspiracy thinking.
So he came up with a way
to test his theory.
First, he looked for
signs for the type
of anxiety that triggers
magical beliefs.
- So we asked people about
apprehensive behaviors,
how often do they
check the locks
on their doors and windows,
do they shred their bills
before they throw them away.
- Then, he measured
how significantly
their emotions factored into
their decision-making.
- We posed a series
of paired questions,
like would you rather
A) sleep in laundered pajamas
once worn by Charles Manson,
or B) pick a nickel
off the ground
and put it in your mouth.
- In other words,
would you rather do something
symbolic that feels wrong
or suffer a tangible punishment?
- People who always will avoid
a symbolic cost
tend to be very high on our
intuitionism scale.
Their world-view
is oriented around
a lot of symbols and metaphors,
so the last thing they wanna do
is sleep in laundered pajamas
worn by Charles Manson.
- Those people were
also more likely
to believe in
conspiracy theories
and magical ideas.
- [Dr. Oliver] They're more 
likely to believe in ESP,
or horoscopes, herbal remedies,
and alternative medicine.
- According to Dr. Oliver,
two-thirds of Americans
at the extreme ends of his scale
fall on the intuitionists side.
So what about the other third?
- We focus on scientific issues,
issues that can be resolved
through evidence and reason
and logic.
With UFOs, extraordinary claims
require extraordinary evidence.
Not just a video of it,
you have to actually show us
a real spacecraft.
The actual alien.
- According to rationalists,
the evidence on UFOs
is not only lacking,
but points to a
different explanation.
- [Cara] The first
UFO sightings at Roswell
took place in 1947,
a time when
Americans were primed
for conspiracy thinking.
- The cold war was young,
and there was the threat
of nuclear annihilation
and so anxieties
about communists
were heavy in the air.
People are afraid of not
just alien influences
but strange new weapons.
- [Cara] And while it's
true that the government
was very secretive
about what was
going on at Roswell,
it had nothing to
do with aliens.
- There was a
conspiracy at Roswell
in that the U.S.
government did not want
to disclose that
it was monitoring
Soviet nuclear tests.
So it was very deceptive
in the way it
described the incident.
- [Cara] Nonetheless,
UFOs made their way
into the popular culture.
Hollywood began churning
out magical stories
that helped explain away
America's collective anxieties.
And the idea of a
government conspiracy
to hide aliens
has been lodged in
our national psyche
ever since.
- In the 19th century,
nobody was talking about UFOs.
People only started
talking about UFOs
once science fiction writers
started writing about UFOs.
- There's a feedback loop.
The X-Files in the 1990's
drew on a lot of stories
people were telling
in conspiracy forums,
and then the conspiracy
forum people were,
in turn, influenced
by the sorts of things
they saw in the X-Files.
- [Cara] So the
rationalists are logical
and the intuitionists just watch
too much T.V., right?
Not so fast.
Rational thinking can
only take us so far.
- [Dr. Oliver] Science is a
really difficult tool
in a lot of ways,
because it doesn't 
provide much emotional comfort.
Our supernatural beliefs,
our conspiracy beliefs,
these help us give meaning
and order to the world.
- There are blinking
lights right up there,
you can see.
And then there's another one.
There's at least four of 'em.
- We have to make room for
empirically based verification,
but we also have to make room
for mystery of life.
When we think about
all that is good,
so much has not been rational.
I can't put love
under a microscope.
I can't explain
all of the actions
of altruism.
That exceeds our
limited capacity
of understanding.
- The world needs
both intuitionists
and rationalists.
But here's the problem.
They often have a hard time
understanding each other.
- [Cara] The rationalists
argue the evidence.
The intuitionists
argue their feelings.
Both talk past each other
and those missed messages
are increasingly dividing us.
- People feel more--
- Feel it.
Yes, they feel it,
but the facts don't support it.
- I'll go with how people feel
and I'll let you go
with theoreticians.
- Much of what seems
like the difference
between liberals
and conservatives
really isn't a
difference of ideology
about the scope of government,
it's about a way
of understanding
the world.
- Until both sides 
learn to understand
each other better,
it's gonna be difficult
to bridge the divide.
So how do we do that?
- If we wanna bridge this gap,
I think it's incumbent
upon rationalists
to begin to understand
how intuitionists
understand the world and begin
to speak to them
a little bit more
on their terms.
- Logic and knowledge.
They're not enough.
- For intuitionists,
the challenge is being open
to empirical evidence,
even when it doesn't align with
their gut instincts.
- It can be tempting
to trust our own
wisdom better than
mainstream authorities.
These illusions of understanding
can lead us to mistaken beliefs.
- [Cara] In
our next episode,
we'll explore how
citizen journalism
and a cognitive foible,
called the illusion
of understanding,
are driving misinformation
to the top of our news feeds.
