Discussion Questions for 2 March

1. This week we begin our discussion of hypotheses on misperception as a cause of war. Please review last week's questions, as well as the list of terms, on the psychological theories of misperception.
   



2. How satisfying do you find the first category of organizational hypotheses on misperception (i.e., those that point to government bureaucracies and private organizations as the sources of misperception)? Do you find them more or less persuasive than the psychological hypotheses? How would you test these organizational hypotheses?
   



3. How convinced are you by the claim that nationalist mythmaking is a significant cause of war? Why should lies and distortions in school history textbooks matter? How would you test this hypothesis?