I have recently been reading a lot of ScienceBlogs articles which are responses to writings by individuals who present faulty knowledge on subjects such as evolution, math, logic, and science in general (Pharyngula; Good Math, Bad Math; and Respectful Insolence are examples). I noticed that I naturally tend to believe some writers and disbelieve others after reading just a few paragraphs. This led me to ponder what feature of their writing led me to this sort of judgment without having read their entire article or rant or whatever it might be.

I figure, it must be something similar that leads me to believe what a person is saying or whether I should trust a person in general from having a few conversations with them. Of course in reading somebody’s writing or in listening to them speak, I can definitely make false judgments so clearly my method is not perfect (I doubt a perfect method exists, as you are always acting on incomplete information, even after you’ve read an article and checked the facts behind it, you do not know what the person was thinking and in what context the piece was written in).

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