You might be surprised to learn that Stockholm syndrome is just a theory. It’s used to explain why hostages sometimes develop a psychological bond with their captors. The problem is, people refer to it like it’s a fact, and the truth is a little more sketchy. The term was actually first used in a trial to discredit a female witness and explain why she was responding in a particular way. It didn’t spring from some deep body of research or rigorous testing; it came from someone trying to win an argument. The research came later.
The Bechdel test is another thing you may hear people refer to often regarding films. It’s a test to measure the representation of women in film and other fiction. But it began life as a joke by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, and was only mentioned once in a 1985 strip of her comic ‘Dykes To Watch Out For’ before it took on a life of its own.
The pyramid visualisation of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs was created after he died.
The Dunning-Kruger effect doesn’t mean what you think it means; in fact, it may not mean anything at all. The ‘effect’ described in the original study is likely to be a mistake that has become strangely self-fulfilling because most people who refer to it have never read the study.
These are examples of how ideas sprout overnight and become popular heuristics that allow people to skip layers of assumptions. But what happens when the core assumption is untrue or misleading?
Many ideas get weaponised and pushed beyond their initial boundaries, becoming hollow abstractions. Be careful how many of these hollow bricks you use to build your conception of the world.
