Despite our ancient capacity for reason, today we are flooded with reminders of the fallacies and follies of our fellows. People gamble and play the lottery, where they are guaranteed to lose, and fail to invest for their retirement, where they are guaranteed to win. Three quarters of Americans believe in at least one phenomenon that defies the laws of science, including psychic healing (55 percent), extrasensory perception (41 percent), haunted houses (37 percent), and ghosts (32 percent)—which also means that some people believe in houses haunted by ghosts without believing in ghosts.
