Psychology and Scientific Thinking

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- overuse of ad hoc immunizing hypotheses

- escape loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification

- ex.: psychic failed all controlled tests in a lab when she sad she could predict future but blamed It on the experimenter inhibiting her psychic powers

- exaggerated claims

- 3 steps will change your love life

- lack of self-correction when contrary evidence is published

- claims in science turning out wrong is a strength, not weakness

- wrong claims weeded out in science

- in Pseudoscience, wrong claims persist because of belief perseverance

- ex.: astrology remains some for 4000 regardless of changes

- overreliance on anecdotes

- base claims on one or two stories from people

- ex.: lost 85 lbs in 3 weeks of Atkin’s diet

- doesn’t tell anything about how representative cases are

- difficult to verify

- not evidence

- absence of connectivity to other research

- lack of review by other scholars/replication by independent labs

- psychobabble

- talk of “proof” instead of evidence

WHY ARE WE DRAWN TO PSEUDOSCIENCE?

- our brains like to make order out of disorder

- patternicity = tendency to see patterns out of meaningless data

- adaptive tendency

- seek out connections

- always better to assume connections

- conspiracy theories (hold 2 logical but inconsistent beliefs, Diana ex.)

- why we detect eerie coincidences (sometimes, things are JUST due to chance)

- Abe Lincoln vs. JFK

- fall victim to confirmation bias, don’t consider info that doesn’t support our hypothesis

- see meaningful images in meaningless stimuli

- cloud perceptions

- sayings like in the zone, etc. but not true

- another reasons: Pseudoscience is motivational

- believe because we want to believe

- prone to patternicity when we experience a loss of control over our surroundings

- explain beliefs in ESP, astrology: claim to lend sense of control over uncontrollable

Terror Management Theory:

Our awareness of our own inevitable death leaves many of us with an underlying sense of fear; we cope with such feelings by adopting cultural worldviews that reassure us that our lives possess a broader meaning and purpose (one that extends beyond our quick existence on earth)

Students believe LOGICAL FALLACIES:

- Emotional Reasoning Fallacy

- using emotions as guides for evaluating a claim’s validity

- affect heuristic

- just because something makes us upset, doesn’t mean it is wrong

- Bandwagon Fallacy

- correct claim because many people believe it

- Not Me Fallacy

- we are immune from errors in thinking that afflict other people

- people so sure claims are correct that they don’t conduct scientific studies to test claims

- Either-or Fallacy

- framed question we can answer in only 2 extreme ways

- Appeal to authority fallacy

- accept claim because authority figure endorses it

- Naturalistic fallacy

- inferring moral judgment from scientific fact

- Hasty generalization fallacy

- draw conclusion from insufficient and too little evidence

- Circular reasoning fallacy

- error of basing claim on same claim but in different terms

- Genetic fallacy

- confusing correctness of a belief with its origins or genesis

- Argument from Antiquity Fallacy

- assuming belief is right because its been around for a while

BIAS BLIND SPOT: Unaware of their biases but aware of them in others

Dangers of Pseudoscience

- opportunity cost

- lead people to forgo opportunities to seek effective treatments

- causes harm even if the treatment is fine because people forfeit the chance to have a treatment that works

- Direct Harm

- cause actual damage, sometimes death

- ex.: rebirthing therapy; theory that children’s behavioral problems stemmed from birth so they try to reenact the trauma of birth with therapists help

- Inability to Think Scientifically as Citizens

- Apply to all aspects of life to reach educated decisions

Scientific Thinking: Fact from Fiction

Scientific

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