I believe this is the correct and uncontroversial explanation.

I blieve you are correct. All my alts are gone

man what the hell is that article on? It starts off explaining the pot roast principle which ok that makes sense (it's that we often do things not because of logic but simply we were taught to do so by our parents), but then it says that a message to take away from the story is that "persistence is a virtue" which I mean I guess but you're kinda missing the point? But then in the very next sentence where it says "sometimes things we take as fact are just superstition" it goes "and we should consider prayer as a healthcare alternative" and compares listening to only medical science as like cutting the ends off a pot roast. Not like "superstitions hang around for a reason though and there's perhaps some minor psychological value in these harmless cultural things" or "people who strongly believe in something tend to report more positively in negative times" or even god forbid "have you considered that prayer is like cutting pot roast ends?", straight up "have you tried asking God for help? When was the last time you did that huh? Why are you treating God like a teabag that's pretty ungrateful you dick"

I'm guessing you probably didn't mean for that to be the message (this article is weirdly the first to pop up when you google the term) but uh, maybe you should vet your articles? Unless you're really trying to say we should try praying for lemmy to succeed

I read about an experiment once, where monkeys were placed in a room with a ladder leading to a reward. Whenever a monkey attempted to climb the ladder, they were sprayed with water. Over time, new monkeys replaced the original ones, and even though the water spraying ceased, the monkeys continued to prevent each other from climbing the ladder based on learned behavior. This went on and on even though none of the monkeys in the room had ever been sprayed.

I think about that a lot whenever people say they aren't allowed do something, especially because of religion.

Not gonna lie I lost it when the article asks, "Are your prayers like tea bags? Do you only use them when you’re in hot water??"

Thanks for the link, cool concept.

- daily comment contributing to the roastbeef end cutting

I was busy for a few days where are the trend discussions being held?

Right? I want quality, not quantity.

Most people just call that “cargo cult” where they don’t know why they do something, they just do the ritual without questioning it. Also it probably won’t lead to people looking up stuff related to putting a roast on a spit 😉

I am also under the impression that active only counts users who commented or posted. So there is also a very significant possibility that people are just settling in and starting to lurk. It's really the 90-9-1 principle (in a stable community, 90% lurk, 9% are occasionally active, 1% are consistently active). It would really be weirder if we didn't see some lurkers after such a massive influx of people