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Definition:
The red flag Idealogical Support is commonly identified being paired with religion, whether it be ethical, morally, or politically appropiate.

Connection: Idealogical support often occurs in politics when a person supports only one side of a political party. They have their beliefs so it makes them support a team based on their beliefs.

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Definition:
The red flag Mystical Energy is when science and the world's mystical ways do not coincide with one another. This term is frequently used by spiritualists.

Connection: This article relates to mystical energy because it is about a woman going into a shop and a person using crystals to harness the healing powers with the seven energy points throughout the body.

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Definition:
The reason for belief Patternicity is also known as the human brain picking up on patterns to create images and patterns, even when difficult to identify.

Connection: This picture is an example of patternicity because just because the pancake looks like a person doesn't mean it was a sign from someone or something. It is your brain connecting things and identifying them as signs.

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Definition:
The reason for belief Unexplained generally is assigned to the unapprahendable and unknown leaving it to remain unexplained.

Connection: The connection between the Bermuda Triangle and unexplained is that there is no exact explanation for the background behind it.

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Definition:
The reason for belief Agenticity arise when one identifies invisible agents (aliens, ghost, gods) in all manner as a higher authority.

Connection: This is an article of multiple UFO sightings around Canada. There is a connection to agenticity because the people that saw the aliens believed that they did see aliens.

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A pair of orange fireballs streaking across the dark horizon. A mysterious object crashing into Lake Winnipeg. A nighttime visit from a "being with blonde hair and blue skin."

These are among 1,267 reported UFO sightings across Canada in 2015, the second-biggest year for unexplained alien activity in the last 30 years.

The detailed Canadian UFO Survey released Monday by the Winnipeg-based group Ufology Research includes accounts of where, when and precisely what Canadians claim they saw in the sky last year.

The trove of strange stories includes dozens of unexplained lights, aircraft shaped like discs and diamonds, silently hovering UFOs and a few close encounters of the third kind.

In one case from Quebec, someone reported seeing three short "humanoids" with heads too big for their bodies and "big, black slanted eyes." They then heard a high-pitched hum and woke up the next morning.

The stories may sound unbelievable, and researchers admit that many don't hold up. Only about 12 per cent of the reports were classified as "unexplained."

"The ridicule factor is quite certainly there, but we're not saying the little grey guys are here. This is simply what people are reporting," Winnipeg-based UFO researched Chris Rutkowski told CTV News Channel on Tuesday.

The data was collected from 17 sources across the country including Transport Canada, Canada National Defense, the National UFO Reporting Center and YouTube.

Witnesses included pilots, police officers and "other individuals with reasonably good observing capabilities and good judgement," researchers wrote.

The only year with more UFO sightings than 2015 was 2012. Researchers believe that may have related to reports of a supposed "end-of-days" phenomenon from the Mayan calendar.

"We do know that the UFO reports continue to be made in growing numbers every year and this is just indicative that people are paying attention to what is in the sky. They're not just looking down at their cellphones," Rutkowski said.

Having trouble seeing this map? Click here.

UFOs prefer Quebec

Quebec led the country with 35 per cent of all UFO reports in 2015 -- a notable jump from previous years when that figure wavered between five and 15 per cent.

"It could be (that) the media are a little more attentive to the UFOs in Quebec," Rutkowski said.

Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland all had an increase in UFO sightings in 2015. In terms of major Canadian cities, Montreal had the most reports with 97, with 78 sightings in Toronto and 69 in Vancouver.

The average sighting lasted about 16 minutes.

Ufology Research has collected the reports on a yearly basis since 1989. Since then, they've compiled 16,905 sightings.

Many strange lights, few alien beings

By and large, Canadians mostly reported seeing strange lights in the night sky. They came in a variety of colours (pink, orange, "brilliant white") and shapes (orbs, triangles), and some moved in curious zigzagging or stop-and-go patterns.

The data becomes particularly strange is in several isolated reports of one-on-one contact with alien beings.

In Montpellier, Que., a "humanoid" reportedly approached a house after lights were seen. In Kentville, N.S., an alien reportedly entered a person's bedroom and held their shoulders. In Oshawa, Ont., someone reported being abducted aboard a spaceship (a note indicates "photos that don't show anything.")

In an attached essay on the data, researchers ponder what, if not proof of alien life, underlies the eyewitness reports.

"Is this phenomenon psychological, sociological, cultural, and/or physical? Is it our contemporary culture's storytelling? Is it our collective psychological and social mythology generating what myths have generated since ancient times, answers to our desires, visions of our nightmares, and insights into what our future may hold? Or is the phenomenon something else? Physical objects created by our species or another form of life we cannot begin to understand?"

Canadians more open to discussing UFOs

The steadily rising reports of UFOs could be linked to several factors: the popularization of drones, camera phones, laser pointers, at-home strobe lights. But Rutkowski suggests that the increase likely relates to the country's collective curiosity.

"People are more interested. I think other people will talk to each other at a party or in school or university, and these are the types of topics people are interested in," he said.

He added that, as writers like Stephen Hawking continue to pen popular books on outer space, humankind will continue to question the existence of extra-terrestrial life.

"Because space is so much in the public eye, I think people are paying a little more attention to the possibility that we are not alone."

With files from Jesse Tahirali

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Close encounters in Canada: UFO data reveals unexplained alien sightings

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A pair of orange fireballs streaking across the dark horizon. A mysterious object crashing into Lake Winnipeg. A nighttime visit from a "being with blonde hair and blue skin." These are among 1,267 reported UFO sightings across Canada in 2015, the second-biggest year for unexplained alien activity in the last 30 years.

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Definition:
The red flag Conformation Bias is when one habitually finds comfort to agree to the evidence while discouraging opposing opinions.

Connection: There is an example this article about a girl and her opinions on gun control. It shows how she only finds information that supports her side of the debate which is the limitations on control.

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Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you are like most people, you probably like to think that your beliefs are the result of years of experience and objective analysis of the information you have available. The reality is that all of us are susceptible to a tricky problem known as a confirmation bias.

While we like to imagine that our beliefs are rational, logical, and objective, the fact is that our ideas are often based on paying attention to the information that upholds our ideas.

At the same time, we tend to ignore the information that challenges our existing beliefs.

Understanding Confirmation Bias

A confirmation bias is a type of cognitive bias that involves favoring information which confirms previously existing beliefs or biases.

For example, imagine that a person holds a belief that left-handed people are more creative than right-handed people. Whenever this person encounters a person that is both left-handed and creative, they place greater importance on this "evidence" that supports what they already believe. This individual might even seek "proof" that further backs up this belief while discounting examples that do not support the idea.

Confirmation biases impact how people gather information, but they also influence how we interpret and recall information. For example, people who support or oppose a particular issue will not only seek information to support it, they will also interpret news stories in a way that upholds their existing ideas.

They will also remember things in a way that reinforces these attitudes.

Confirmation Biases in Action

Consider the debate over gun control. Sally, for example, is in support of gun control. She seeks out news stories and opinion pieces that reaffirm the need for limitations on gun ownership. When she hears stories about shootings in the media, she interprets them in a way that supports her existing beliefs.

Henry, on the other hand, is adamantly opposed to gun control. He seeks out news sources that are aligned with his position. When he comes across news stories about shootings, he interprets them in a way that supports his current point of view.

These two people have very different opinions on the same subject and their interpretations are based on that. Even if they read the same story, their bias tends to shape the way they perceive it because it confirms their beliefs.

The Impact of Confirmation Biases

In the 1960s, cognitive psychologist Peter Cathcart Wason conducted a number of experiments known as Wason's rule discovery task. He demonstrated that people have a tendency to seek information that confirms their existing beliefs. Unfortunately, this type of bias can prevent us from looking at situations objectively. It can also influence the decisions we make and can lead to poor or faulty choices.

During an election season, for example, people tend to seek positive information that paints their favored candidates in a good light. They will also look for information that casts the opposing candidate in a negative light.

By not seeking out objective facts, interpreting information in a way that only supports their existing beliefs, and only remembering details that uphold these beliefs, they often miss important information.

These details and facts might have otherwise influenced their decision on which candidate to support.

In his book, "Research in Psychology: Methods and Design," C. James Goodwin gives a great example of confirmation bias as it applies to extrasensory perception.

"Persons believing in extrasensory perception (ESP) will keep close track of instances when they were 'thinking about Mom, and then the phone rang and it was her!' Yet they ignore the far more numerous times when (a) they were thinking about Mom and she didn't call and (b) they weren't thinking about Mom and she did call. They also fail to recognize that if they talk to Mom about every two weeks, their frequency of "thinking about Mom" will increase near the end of the two-week-interval, thereby increasing the frequency of a 'hit.'"

As Catherine A. Sanderson points out in her book, "Social Psychology," confirmation bias also helps form and re-confirm stereotypes we have about people.

"We also ignore information that disputes our expectations. We are more likely to remember (and repeat) stereotype-consistent information and to forget or ignore stereotype-inconsistent information, which is one-way stereotypes are maintained even in the face of disconfirming evidence. If you learn that your new Canadian friend hates hockey, loves sailing and that your new Mexican friend hates spicy foods and loves rap music, you are less likely to remember this new stereotype-inconsistent information."

Confirmation bias is not only found in our personal beliefs, it can affect our professional endeavors as well. In the book, "Psychology," Peter O. Gray offers this example of how it may affect a doctor's diagnosis.

"Groopman (2007) points out that the confirmation bias can couple with the availability bias in producing misdiagnosis in a doctor's office. A doctor who had jumped to a particular hypothesis as to what disease a patient has may then ask questions and look for evidence that tends to confirm that diagnosis while overlooking evidence that would tend to disconfirm it. Groopman suggests that medical training should include a course in inductive reasoning that would make new doctors aware of such biases. Awareness, he things, would lead to fewer diagnostic errors. A good diagnostician will test his or her initial hypothesis by searching for evidence against that hypothesis."

A Word From Verywell

Unfortunately, we all have confirmation bias. Even if you believe you are very open-minded and only observe the facts before coming to conclusions, it's very likely that some bias will shape your opinion in the end. It is difficult to combat this natural tendency.

Yet, if we know about confirmation bias and accept the fact that it does exist, we can make attempts to recognize it. That may help us see things from another perspective, though it's never a guarantee.
Gray PO. Psychology. 6th ed. New York: Worth Publishers; 2011. Goodwin CJ, Goodwin KA. Research in Psychology: Methods and Design. 7th ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons; 2013. Poletiek FH. Hypothesis-Testing Behavior. Psychology Press; 2013. Sanderson CA. Social Psychology. 1st ed. New Jersey: John Wiley and Sons; 2010.

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Why Do We Favor Information That Confirms Our Existing Beliefs?

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Where do your beliefs and opinions come from? If you are like most people, you probably like to think that your beliefs are the result of years of experience and objective analysis of the information you have available. The reality is that all of us are susceptible to a tricky problem known as a confirmation bias.

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Definition:
The red flag All Natural is often mistake for being healthy, when in fact these common ingrediants such as mercury and hemlock can be dangerous and cause harm to the human body.

Connection: This picture is a stamp for all natural ingredients, this picture connects to the all natural red flag because whatever item that this picture was on means that there were no ingredients that were harmful.

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Defintion:
The red flag Proof by Verbosity is when an ample amount of evidence is brought forward to support a fact or statement with no other thought, but it must be authentic.

Connection: This website talks about a debater talking in succession and throwing out point after point and not allowing his opponent to get any word in. This relates to proof by verbosity because it is when a person throws out so much information about something to support their fact without any of it being facts.

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Tactical/Linguistic FallacyDefinitionExample When an argument is presented that is too complex, obtuse or verbose to reasonably deal with.Insomuch as it remains within our agency, it behooves us to eschew obfuscation, and espouse elucidation.Also known as: argumentum verbosium / proof by intimidation NotesIt's true that, if your argument is not clear, your opponent can not...

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Made by Ayanna Russell, Josh Xavier Pepper, Tiffany Pike