Area+of+Knowledge+-+Human+Sciences

__**The Influence of Prediction**__
The influence of prediction can have a huge impact on human behaviour and can significantly effect what is predicted. The saying goes "If you believe it will happen, then it will happen"

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When the socceroos used a witch doctor to curse an opposing team in order to help them qualify for the 1970 World Cup finals, they did not pay him and instead the witch doctor turned the curse against them. John Safran (TV show host and Radio Presenter) went to Rhodesia to undo the curse as part of his 'John Safran versus God' TV show. Following the show Australia managed to qualify for the 2006 World Cup finals in Germany.

Read the article below for more: [|Socceroos owe it all to John Safran]

Do you believe that this curse in 1969 had anything to do with Australia's inability to qualif for World Cup finals?

__**Voodoo Deaths**__
Read the linked article below: [|Voodoo in New Orleans]

Do you believe Voodoo deaths happen. If so, account for how you know. If not account for why they are not true.

__**Self-Fulfilling Prophecies**__
A self-fulfilling prophecy is an assumption or prediction that, purely as a result of having been made, cause the expected or predicted event to occur and thus confirms its own 'accuracy.'

Measurement in the Human Sciences It is difficult often to make quantifiable measurements in the human science, although that is not to say that all things cannot be measured. Some things can be measured such a population, birth rate and rate of inflation. Other things are more difficult to measure e.g. happiness, consciousness, and aggression. We do however, like to see things that are measured, as we feel that it gives us a spurious sense of objectivity. Take the medal count at the Beijing Olympics. Is the medal table an indicator of who performed the best or is the best? What actually does it show?

[|Beijing Medal Table]

Who really won the Beijing Olympics? What are the criticisms of the Olympic Medal Table Rankings? What effect does doing well at the Olympics have on a country and its economy? Is there any value in ranking things, the Human Sciences do this a fair bit? How seriously should we take these rankings?