The Earth is flat when personally significant experiences with the sphericity of the Earth are absent.
Participants with personal and without personal experiences with the Earth as a sphere estimated large-scale distances between six cities located on different continents. Cognitive distances were submitted to a specific multidimensional scaling algorithm in the 3D Euclidean space with the constraint that all cities had to lie on the same sphere. A simulation was run that calculated respective 3D configurations of the city positions for a wide range of radii of the proposed sphere. People who had personally experienced the Earth as a sphere, at least once in their lifetime, showed a clear optimal solution of the multidimensional scaling (MDS) routine with a mean radius deviating only 8% from the actual radius of the Earth. In contrast, the calculated configurations for people without any personal experience with the Earth as a sphere were compatible with a cognitive concept of a flat Earth.
Carbon
Claus-Christian
CC
University of Bamberg, Department of Psychology, Germany. ccc@experimental-psychology.com
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D003071:Cognition / Q000502:physiology; D004215:Distance Perception; D018534:Earth, Planet; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D013028:Space Perception / Q000502:physiology*; D055815:Young Adult