Skepticism Failure: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
[[File:
{{quote|''"In movies and TV series about the paranormal, the stereotypical "skeptic" figure always seems to convert into a believer by the end. And why does this occur? Well, because in ''fiction'', the author can control the laws of nature, and in these fictional narratives (which show an abundant lack of creativity), the supernatural always turns out to be ''real''."''|'''Chris Mooney''', [http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/2007/06/hollywoods_offensive_and_deepl.php 'Hollywood's Offensive and Deeply Unoriginal "Skeptic Conversion" Narrative']}}
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* In [[Anime]], ghosts are a fact of life. Whoever doubts it will be proven wrong before the end of the episode. The only major exceptions are detective series, which are full of fake ghosts, and series where there's one type of supernatural creature as a premise of the show, and the "ghost" is one of those in disguise.
** Anime in general holds this trope up due to the underlying Shinto belief system, which has multiple gods and magic forces. In nearly all anime/manga/games, when an event can be attributed to the supernatural, it is rarely questioned due to this cultural system. However, there are exceptions...
* ''[[City Hunter]] II''
* Kyon in ''[[Haruhi Suzumiya]]'' experienced this trope when he realizes that aliens, espers, and [[Time Travel|time-travellers]] exist. He now regularly spends much of his time in damage control to make sure ''more'' of this weirdness doesn't
* Seto Kaiba from ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!]]'' is a shining example of a disbeliever to the point of seeing the past, his ancestor, and still brushing it off as fake.
* ''[[This Ugly Yet Beautiful World]]'': Everybody is surprisingly easily convinced that Hikari and Akari are aliens. Also, nobody bats an eyelid when Hikari's servant, a [[Ridiculously Human Robot]], shows up.
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* ''[[Touched By an Angel]]'' <s>claims</s> revolves around how God works in mysterious ways even when you don't believe it.
** In one episode, God (represented or channeled by the main character) is "put on trial," but the opposing counsel falls victim to fallacious reasoning, both committing fallacies in his own arguments and being (especially for a trained lawyer) overly credulous of the opposition's reasoning. This in effect sets up the prosecuting attorney as a [[Straw Man]] for the defendant.
* Played straight in virtually every episode of ''[[The X-Files]]''
** Subverted in the episode "Humbug" when Scully explains that she saw the killer, and what he was, but the local sheriff makes fun of her outlandish story (which the viewer knows happens to be true). Mulder, who had been skeptical of her theory himself, walks by and comments, "Now you know how I feel."
** Also, it is implied that Scully, especially in the later seasons, remains skeptical on purpose to make Mulder come up with proof for his [[Epileptic Trees]].
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== [[Live-Action TV]] ==
* An interesting subversion comes up in ''[[The 4400]]'' where the show starts off with an event (4400 missing persons who disappeared over a span of 60 years suddenly reappearing, not a day older than when they left, in a ball of light near Seattle) so spectacular and public that not even the most skeptical can deny what has happened, yet everyone remains fairly skeptical about what caused it and what it means until the plot shows up to answer some questions.
* Subverted in an episode of ''[[CSI]]'' where one investigator's firm belief in spontaneous human
** There was also an episode where a psychic got killed because she managed to divine the place a murder victim's body had been hidden, and the villain heard of this. In the end of the episode it was revealed that she had no supernatural knowledge, and her assessment of the victim's soul's current location (She is in 'Summerland') got misheard for 'Sommerlin', which was the area the body was hidden.
* In one episode of ''[[House (TV series)|House]]'' the patient claims to have been abducted by aliens. It turns out to be a hallucination, just as House repeatedly insisted.
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