[Neurons] 2018 Neurons #44 EMOTIONAL CREDIBILITY

Sun Oct 7 21:21:55 EDT 2018

From: L. Michael Hall

2018 Neurons #44

October 8, 2018

Neuro-Semantics and Modern Challenges (#3)

EMOTIONAL CREDIBILITY

An amazing thing happened this past week.  An accuser made accusations
against a man with a sterling record as a legal scholar and a judge for 12
years on the Washington DC Circuit.  Yet in the end, the accusations
themselves proved to be un-substantiated and un-corroborated by any evidence
or any witness.  What I then found quite amazing is that- when asked if she
was believable- a great percentage of the American population said yes.
Many Republicans also said yes and went further, they said that "her
testimony was credible."

Now assuming that they were not just "being nice," and that they really
meant that, how could testimony be "credible" when there's no evidence and
no witness would corroborate it?  How could most people say that they
believe a witness who accuses a person of a hideous crime when there's no
evidence in the slightest?  How does that work?  What do we or should we
base credibility upon?

In the words of the scores of people who were interviewed by the media- "it
was an emotional testimony."  And yes indeed it was.  But- and here is the
big but- is "an emotional testimony" the same thing as or equal to
"credibility?"  Is the degree of your child's emotional intensity when
wanting something or complaining about something equal to and the same thing
as the validity of his cry?  Is it true that because he is emotional and
really, truly wants something?

What we have here is what NLP called a "complex equivalence."  One thing is
equated to another thing.  Here we have externally a strong emotional
statement, expression, state, etc.  Here also we have another thing, an
internal concept- credibility, validity, truthfulness, etc.  Then when we
put these together into a sentence and equate them, we have a belief
statement.  The EB (external behavior) is now equal to (=) the IS (internal
state) (see Mind-Lines, 2005).

           If something is expressed or stated emotionally, then it is
true, valid, and credible.

           If an accuser is emotional (sincerely and intensely), then the
accusation must be true.

           I have to believe someone (validity, credibility), if that
person goes into an emotional state.

Of course, the linguistic framing here that creates this belief is
pseudo-logical.  It creates a false-to-fact belief, a limiting belief, and a
statement of low-level primitive thinking pattern.  The fact is that the
emotionality of a statement does not necessarily make it true or valid.  But
of course, in an Age of Emotion (namely this age!), a non-critical thinking
statement like that seems for most people easy to believe.  Yet what are
people saying, really saying, when they believe that?  They are saying- 

           If she's emotional, her testimony is credible.

           If she's just stating facts and not dramatically feeling it as
she says it, her testimony is not credible.

           To be credible, a person must go into state, re-experience
things and if it is a negative experience, the voice must crack, and the
person must look like and sound like a victim.

Let's now step back for a moment and consider all of this.  Upon what should
we base "credibility" on?  

           What facts, evidence, information, etc. justifies us to believe
someone when they testify to some event?

           Is their emotions and emotional state a sufficient or even a
necessary fact to the truthfulness of their statement?

           Is their emotion and emotional expression, in itself,
information or evidence to the reality of the event?

If you think the answer to these questions is "yes," then go visit a mental
ward.  There you will find many highly emotional people with very intense
emotional testimonies!  Some will testify very emotionally about aliens
taking them into spaceships and scanning their bodies or performing
operations on them.  Yet does that make them credible?

In medieval times, people testified very emotionally that some woman was a
witch and that testimony was sufficient evidence for them to condemn her and
burn her at the stake.  For those a little bit more enlightened, they first
interrogated her using painful devices to eek out a confession, and then
they burned her. 

The fact is emotions, emotional states, and emotional testimonies do not, in
and of themselves provide credibility.  Actors who have learned the acting
method have learned how to turn on and turn off, at their command, all sorts
of emotional states- states that are real to them and that can induce others
into strong emotional states.  To the extent that you might need a strong
emotional state to be able to function or perform well in a given area,
that's what NLP can teach you to do.  Tony Robbins is highly skilled in this
area as the thousands who attend his "Date with Destiny" program can testify
to.

Credibility should go to facts.  What is the evidence that such and such an
event occurred?  Who will testify under oath to corroborate the testimony?
If nobody can say, "Yes I remember being there and seeing or hearing that,"
then is there any evidence, any facts that can establish the credibility of
a report?  For a modern, scientific attitude about things- we look for facts
and assume that a person is innocent unless there are facts that indicate
otherwise.  This has been the basis of jurisprudence in modern societies for
hundreds of years in spite of emotional testimonies.

L. Michael Hall, Ph.D., Executive Director 

Neuro-Semantics 

P.O. Box 8

Clifton, CO. 81520 USA                             

               1 970-523-7877 

                    Dr. Hall's email:
<mailto:meta at acsol.net\hich\af31506\dbch\af31505\loch\f31506> meta at acsol.net

    cid:261CED33-4408-4124-862B-B9A4B37A367A

Dr. L. Michael Hall writes a post on "Neurons" each Monday.  For a free
subscription, sign up on www.neurosemantics.com.   On that website you can
click on Meta-Coaching for detailed information and training schedule.   To
find a Meta-Coach see  <http://www.metacoachfoundation.org>
www.metacoachfoundation.org.   For Neuro-Semantic Publications --- click
"Products," there is also a catalog of books that you can download.   

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20181007/e5a049a2/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: image001.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 3892 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <https://pairlist8.pair.net/pipermail/neurons/attachments/20181007/e5a049a2/attachment.jpg>