In 1980s Southern England, intricate crop circles are appearing overnight, and people are desperate for an explanation. Could humans really create something so complex without anyone spotting them? The truth is out there! Actually, the truth is right here. The problem is getting people to believe it.
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Further Reading
This script relied on Rupert Sheldrake’s account of The Crop Circle Making Competition, alongside an article by the Wessex Sceptics and personal correspondence from Matt Ridley; contemporary reporting in outlets such as Time magazine; and four books – Round in Circles: Physicists, Poltergeists, Pranksters And the Secret History of the Cropwatchers, by Jim Schnabel; Circular Evidence: A detailed investigation of the flattened swirled crops phenomenon, by Colin Andrews and Pat Delgado; Crop Circles: Signs of Contact, by Colin Andrews; and Crop Circles: Conclusive Evidence? by Pat Delgado.
Craig Anderson, Mark R. Lepper and Lee Ross describe their research on risk-taking firefighters in Perseverance of Social Theories: The Role of Explanation in the Persistence of Discredited Information, published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. Anderson’s reflections on vaccine hesitancy are found in Psychological processes underlying denial of science-based medical practices, co authored with Sara Prot.
