Quote Originally Posted by Ghostman View Post
You make a point, but I think most people will at least start to doubt their beliefs if presented with credible arguments and evidence.

Rather than a matter of technology, I think the haunted forest example is more a matter of education. Karro, if you want to try and determine a 'realistic' level of superstition in an area, it may be useful to consider the following questions:
  • What kind of education is available for the upper classes? How common is it for an upper-class person to have received such education? How much resources are they able/willing to expend on education?
  • What kind of education, if any, is available to the lower classes? How many people of lower classes have received any education at all?
  • Are there prevailing attitudes or prejudices against teachers?
  • Who provides the education? Is it controlled by clergy, some political faction, local aristocracy, state, or can anyone become a teacher?
  • Are there many charlatans posing as teachers?
  • Is there enough interaction between the lower and upper classes to allow for the latter's presumably higher education to influence the beliefs of the former, or will social stratification hinder this?
  • Does the area contain any institutions or organizations that promote learning? (Think along the lines of Plato's academy, the early universities, or even just a library made available for local scholars.)
  • How well connected is the area with the rest of the world? Can scholars engage in correspondence with colleagues abroad? Are there political/scholastic/religious reasons to disregard foreign ideas and knowledge?

Those are all EXCELLENT points! Back in the 1800's(and even up into the 1900s) many children in the US were barely educated due to their parents needing them to work on the farm to maintain the families already meager income level.

There is also a factor of self worth involved where someone with a lower self worth will usually be more ready to accept someones talking points as facts without verification(which leads to myths/legends.) I expect(though I have no evidence to prove!) that a group of people who are essentially slaves will be more open to believing things without verification than those who are allowed to earn and keep the fruits of their labor. I believe that a sense of accomplishment pushes one to more readily question the status quo, which is a prime motivation for dispelling myths (or attempting to anyway.)