I have a question wrote:Res Ipsa wrote:I don't think labeling this particular group of folks as gullible is fair or helpful in any way. Affinity fraud is is a significant problem among lots of groups. Here's a list of SEC prosecutions from a few years back.
https://www.sec.gov/investor/pubs/affinity.htm The widespread nature of this problem tells me were dealing with a human problem and not specifically an LDS problem. I think we may have a little confirmation bias at work here.
It is a widespread problem, but Mormons are at the epicenter.
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/8656 ... -hurt.htmlEither belief in Mormonism increases ones gullibility levels, or Mormonism attracts people whose gullibility levels are already elevated.
Or are they? Can you give me statistics showing the prevalence of affinity fraud among Mormons as opposed to, say, Seventh-Day Adventists? Jehovah's Witnesses? Scientologists? Elks? Masons? Veterans? Lutherans? If you've been able to find such statistics by group, then please post a linky because I sure haven't.
What we do have is statistics by state. The problem is, the state statistics are not a good proxy for other groups with high affinity among members. Why? Because the Mormons are much, much more geographically concentrated than comparable groups. So, it's entirely possible that the affinity fraud rate is lower among Mormons than among other high affinity groups, but Utah is high because LDS are concentrated there.
In addition, the fact that LDS are (1) a high affinity group; and (2) geographically concentrated in Utah make Utah Mormons a juicy target for fraudsters. So, how much of the elevated fraud rate in Utah is because people magically become stupid when they join the LDS church and how much is the higher supply of fraudsters in the state? I don't know. More importantly, you don't either.
Affinity fraudsters exploit some of the ways the brain has been hardwired through tens of thousands of years of evolution. When people fall for these scammers, they are doing what human brains do.
By the same token, your brain is also doing what brains naturally do. We call it confirmation bias. In your rush to post yet another slam on Mormons, you never stopped to think through why the data looks the way it does.
Veterans are also very vulnerable to affinity fraud. Would you write this about them:
Either service in the armed forces increases ones gullibility levels or the armed forces attract people whose gullibility levels are already elevated.See how bigoted that sounds?
“The ideal subject of totalitarian rule is not the convinced Nazi or the dedicated communist, but people for whom the distinction between fact and fiction, true and false, no longer exists.”
― Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, 1951