Tinkerbell effect

Last updated April 03, 2023

The Tinkerbell effect is an American English expression describing the phenomenon of thinking something exists only because people believe in it. The effect is named after Tinker Bell, the fairy in the play Peter Pan , who is revived from near death by the belief of the audience.

Another form is called the Reverse Tinkerbell effect, a term coined by David Post in 2003.^[1]^[2] It stipulates that the more you believe in something the more likely it is to vanish. For example, as more people believe that driving is safe, more people will drive carelessly, in turn making driving less safe.

Various applications

As an expression, the Tinkerbell effect is applicable to various situations and can be used to better explain concepts and support arguments.

In motion perception

In the Journal of Consciousness Studies , Frank H. Durgin applies this expression to the study of human motion detection and perception in his paper "The Tinkerbell Effect: Motion Perception and Illusion".^[3] He questions the common belief that visual consciousness is a direct translation of the information the visual sensory organs collect. He argues that "perceptual awareness pretends to have access to more information than is actually available to visual cognition". He relates his argument about the indirectness in motion perception to how, in the play version of Peter Pan, Tinkerbell's revival depends on the live audience expressing their belief in fairies through clapping. The Tinkerbell effect points out a significant flaw in the brain's system of receiving and interpreting visually available information: it is not directly representative of reality. With the overwhelming amount of sensory information, the brain summarizes it by filling in what it cannot make sense of. In other words, it is an act of imagination.^[3]

In education reform

David C. Paris (1997) uses the Tinkerbell effect to explain inconsistency in national education reform. He points out that while reform may be set nationally, it tends to vary depending on the school and on how individual schools manipulate it to suit their current education system. Even though reforms are intended to impact schools, schools often change reforms. Education reform can be complicated because the nature of change works from inside the institutions – driven by teachers, students, and administrators alike – outwards. "Because the reform process often works this way-from the inside out, what succeeds at the school and district level can vary widely."^[4] Paris states there is also no right way to create a better school. There is no set curriculum or teaching style that guarantees a school's successful reform. Rather, some schools seem to succeed because there is widely shared and deeply rooted belief that their unique system works. This culture of belief affects all the critical influencers on the inside, where change can begin and develop. If the school's teachers believe the work they are doing is special and valuable, the students may likely believe that as well.^[4]

In this application, hard work is equivalent to the claps of Peter Pan's live audience. If an institution has greater confidence in its methods (by having effective teachers who promote clear goals and who pay personal attention to their students), it is more likely to receive the "claps" needed for its continued success. Similar to the way in which Tinkerbell's life depends on the audience's belief in her, schools depend on this belief-culture to survive. While this culture of belief in education appears to be beneficial, it cannot be standardized among all schools. Paris argues that without some set measure of program effectiveness, the Tinkerbell effect, that helped some institutions succeed, could hold negative effects on necessary reform. Overconfidence in a system can prevent further improvement and compromise the quality of the program.^[4]^{[ need quotation to verify ]}

In the rule of law

Cameron Stewart uses the Tinkerbell effect to explain why readers should "clap" for the rule of law principle. The rule of law is "a fundamental ideological principle of modern Western democracies, and as such, we are often asked to believe in it with unquestioning acceptance, even though Western states often honour the principle in the breach."^[5] Stewart states that this concept is much like the character Tinkerbell in that she cannot exist unless people believe in her. He says the rule of law does not currently exist in its entirety. He describes the attempts to implement the liberal philosophies embodied by this principle as the basis of common law constitution. This states that "the rule of law, and not parliamentary sovereignty, is the supreme authority of law, placing real limits on the exercise of legislative and executive power."^[5] The issue is that it is not easy to formulate and has turned into a product of legal imagination. The author proposes that a connection between the rule of law and democracy is needed to ensure its existence. The Tinkerbell effect is used to try to effectively convince his readers to support his argument. He emphasizes the importance of adhering to or "clapping" for the rule of law because it is so dependent on our belief.^[5]

Related Research Articles

Objectivism is a philosophical system developed by Russian-American writer and philosopher Ayn Rand. She described it as "the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute".

Philosophy of religion is "the philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious traditions". Philosophical discussions on such topics date from ancient times, and appear in the earliest known texts concerning philosophy. The field is related to many other branches of philosophy, including metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics.

Reality is the sum or aggregate of all that is real or existent within a system, as opposed to that which is only imaginary, nonexistent or nonactual. The term is also used to refer to the ontological status of things, indicating their existence. In physical terms, reality is the totality of a system, known and unknown.

Solipsism is the philosophical idea that only one's mind is sure to exist. As an epistemological position, solipsism holds that knowledge of anything outside one's own mind is unsure; the external world and other minds cannot be known and might not exist outside the mind.

A belief is a subjective attitude that something or proposition is true. In epistemology, philosophers use the term "belief" to refer to attitudes about the world which can be either true or false. To believe something is to take it to be true; for instance, to believe that snow is white is comparable to accepting the truth of the proposition "snow is white". However, holding a belief does not require active introspection. For example, few carefully consider whether or not the sun will rise tomorrow, simply assuming that it will. Moreover, beliefs need not be occurrent, but can instead be dispositional.

Intentionality is the power of minds to be about something: to represent or to stand for things, properties and states of affairs. Intentionality is primarily ascribed to mental states, like perceptions, beliefs or desires, which is why it has been regarded as the characteristic mark of the mental by many philosophers. A central issue for theories of intentionality has been the problem of intentional inexistence: to determine the ontological status of the entities which are the objects of intentional states.

Subjectivism is the doctrine that "our own mental activity is the only unquestionable fact of our experience", instead of shared or communal, and that there is no external or objective truth.

The existence of God is a subject of debate in theology, philosophy of religion and popular culture. A wide variety of arguments for and against the existence of God or deities can be categorized as logical, empirical, metaphysical, subjective or scientific. In philosophical terms, the question of the existence of God or deities involves the disciplines of epistemology and ontology and the theory of value.

Philosophy of space and time is the branch of philosophy concerned with the issues surrounding the ontology and epistemology of space and time. While such ideas have been central to philosophy from its inception, the philosophy of space and time was both an inspiration for and a central aspect of early analytic philosophy. The subject focuses on a number of basic issues, including whether time and space exist independently of the mind, whether they exist independently of one another, what accounts for time's apparently unidirectional flow, whether times other than the present moment exist, and questions about the nature of identity.

The Grammar of Science is a book by Karl Pearson first published in hardback in 1892. In 1900, the second edition, published by Adam & Charles Black, appeared. The third, revised, edition was also published by Adam & Charles Black in 1911. It was recommended by Einstein to his friends of the Olympia Academy. Several themes were covered in this book that later became part of the theories of Einstein and other scientists, such as:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glossary of philosophy</span> List of definitions of terms and concepts commonly used in philosophy

This glossary of philosophy is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to philosophy and related disciplines, including logic, ethics, and theology.

"If a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?" is a philosophical thought experiment that raises questions regarding observation and perception.

Udayana, also known as Udayanācārya, was an Indian philosopher and logician of the tenth century of the Nyaya school who attempted to devise a rational theology to prove the existence of God using logic and counter the attack on the existence of God at the hands of Buddhist philosophers such as Dharmakīrti, Jñānaśrī and against the Indian school of materialism (Chārvaka). He is considered to be the most important philosopher of the Nyāya tradition.

According to Jain doctrine, the universe and its constituents—soul, matter, space, time, and principles of motion—have always existed. Jainism does not support belief in a creator deity. All the constituents and actions are governed by universal natural laws. It is not possible to create matter out of nothing and hence the sum total of matter in the universe remains the same. Jain texts claim that the universe consists of jiva and ajiva. The soul of each living being is unique and uncreated and has existed during beginningless time.

Libertarian Christianity is a designation that encompasses a variety of people, ideologies, philosophies, etc., the commonality of which is that each of these claims some commitment to both libertarianism and Christianity. Libertarianism and Christianity, as societal entities, are each composed of a variety of factions, each of which claims some distinguishing features that make such faction more libertarian, or more Christian, than other factions operating under the same libertarian or Christian banner. Libertarian Christians are yet another faction within each of these two internally diverse superstructures. What makes libertarian Christianity unique is that people who claim to be libertarian Christians are people who either implicitly or explicitly claim to have found some kind of ideological bridge that makes libertarianism and Christianity compatible. Whether people who claim to be libertarian Christians have discovered an ideological bridge that is genuinely faithful to the fundamental tenets of both libertarianism and Christianity is inevitably a question whose answer determines whether the libertarian Christian's bridge is ideologically sound or is based on pure presumption and wishful thinking.

In philosophy, objectivity is the concept of truth independent from individual subjectivity. A proposition is considered to have objective truth when its truth conditions are met without bias caused by the mind of a sentient being. Scientific objectivity refers to the ability to judge without partiality or external influence. Objectivity in the moral framework calls for moral codes to be assessed based on the well-being of the people in the society that follow it. Moral objectivity also calls for moral codes to be compared to one another through a set of universal facts and not through subjectivity.

Legal Services Corp. v. Velazquez, 531 U.S. 533 (2001), is a decision of the Supreme Court of the United States concerning the constitutionality of funding restrictions imposed by the United States Congress. At issue were restrictions on the Legal Services Corporation (LSC), a private, nonprofit corporation established by Congress. The restrictions prohibited LSC attorneys from representing clients attempting to amend existing welfare law. The case was brought by Carmen Velazquez, whose LSC-funded attorneys sought to challenge existing welfare provisions since they believed that it was the only way to get Velazquez financial relief.

This is a glossary of terms used in New Thought.

In the United States, some categories of speech are not protected by the First Amendment. According to the Supreme Court of the United States, the U.S. Constitution protects free speech while allowing limitations on certain categories of speech.

References

↑ Kieran Healy (January 29, 2003). "Reverse Tinkerbell Example" . Retrieved September 14, 2015.
↑ David G. Post, "The Reverse Tinkerbell Effect: You Heard it Here First," The Volokh Conspiracy Blog, Jan. 26, 2003, http://volokh.com/2003_01_26_volokh_archive.html#90251142 (last visited May 17, 2019)
1 2 Durgin, Frank H. (2002). "The Tinkerbell Effect: Motion Perception and Illusion" (PDF). Journal of Consciousness Studies. 9 (5–6): 1–14.
1 2 3 Paris, D.C. (1997). "School Reform: Too much talk, too little action". Forum for Applied Research and Public Policy. 12 (3): 46–56. ProQuest 235137880.
1 2 3 Stewart, Cameron (2004). "The Rule of Law and the Tinkerbell Effect: Theoretical Considerations, Criticisms, and Justifications for the Rule of Law". Macquarie Law Journal . Retrieved 9 November 2015. Also available here.