cargo cult

Noun

Meaning

a religious cult that anticipates a time of joy, serenity, and justice when salvation comes

(Melanesia) the followers of one of several millenarian cults that believe salvation will come in the form of wealth (`cargo') brought by westerners; some ascribe divine attributes to westerners on first contact (especially to missionaries)

Hypernyms

Examples

Here is where the predictions failed: We didn't take Cargo Cult mentality into account: "if somebody has something I don't, he must have stolen it." We didn't understand how good we could get at communication - when you have something that someone else doesn't, the whole damn planet knows it. Larry Niven

"Cargo cult" science Another bias, which has become more prevalent with the advent of " big science " and the large rewards of new discoveries, is bias in favor of the researcher's desired hypothesis or outcome; we "see what we want to see". Source: Internet

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