Why Smart People Believe Weird Things: A Slovak Case Study

Why do smart people believe things that aren’t true? Why do cold drinks get blamed for sore throats? Why do people trust vitamin supplements, miracle cures, or conspiracy theories? And why does Slovakia consistently rank among the most conspiracy-prone countries in Europe? In this episode, I explore the cognitive shortcuts that all humans use to make sense of the world—and why the same mental “operating system” can produce very different results in different historical and cultural environments. From old wives’ tales and folk medicine to institutional distrust, education, fatalism, David Icke, Soňa Peková and Peter Kotlár, this is an attempt to understand not why Slovaks are irrational, but why human beings are. 📌 Chapters 00:00 Quiz: Common Beliefs 00:41 The answers 02:12 Received wisdom 02:24 The Three Frozen Men (Traja zmrznutí muži) 03:34 Cold drinks and sore throats 04:24 The meningitis scare 05:11 Phenylephrine, supplements and smart consumers 06:19 Our cognitive operating system 07:16 The lure of simple stories 07:55 The Slovak Localisation 08:45 Old Magic 10:37 Who Do You Trust? 12:39 Come Flies, East Me 15:03 David Icke and Soňa Peková 17:13 Glass Houses: Britain, conspiracy thinking and Nigel Farage 19:20 Outro Sources and further reading: • GLOBSEC 2020 https://www.globsec.org/what-we-do/pu... https://www.globsec.org/what-we-do/pu... • European Social Survey (ESS) https://ess.sikt.no/en/datafile/f37d0... • YouGov https://yougov.com/en-gb/articles/337... • Cochrane Review Vitamin C for preventing and treating the common cold https://www.cochranelibrary.com/cdsr/... • Research on phenylephrine efficacy https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles... • David Icke interview on Wogan (1991):    • David Icke on Wogan Complete Interview, 1991   If you enjoyed this episode, please like, subscribe, and join the discussion in the comments. #Slovakia #ConspiracyTheories #CriticalThinking #Psychology #Misinformation #DavidIcke #SoňaPeková #PeterKotlár #Blorecast This is the final part of a three-part arc. Here are the first two: Part I — Put Some Socks On!    • 🇸🇰 Why Slovaks Fear The Cold 🥶 (Put Some S...   Part II — The Lekáreň    • I went to a Slovak doctor... and walked ou...   ⸻ 🔔 Subscribe for more The Blorecast is a podcast from The School of Blore in Košice, Slovakia. It’s about life, culture, language, and exams – all served up with a dose of humour and storytelling. Whether you’re learning English, preparing for Cambridge exams, or just curious about life in Slovakia, you’ll find something here. ⸻ The Blorecast is also available as a podcast 🎧 Listen: https://feeds.captivate.fm/blorecast/ https://open.spotify.com/show/0kHQShC... https://podcasts.apple.com/sk/podcast... ⸻ 📺 Watch:    / @bloresk   📌 Find out more at: https://blore.sk/ 📧 Contact: [email protected] 👍 Follow us on Facebook:   / blore.sk   📸 Or instagram:   / blore.sk   ⸻ Attributions Other photos are James's own (all rights reserved). Our theme tune is Ode to Joy – Heavy Edition, written specially for us by the most excellent dafteaux:    • Ode to Joy - Heavy Edition   The first funky breakbeat drum loop is by Alexander, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License: http://www.orangefreesounds.com/vinta... And the new ones are from here: https://samplefocus.com/samples/acous... And here: