Category: Behavior & Belief
When Is It Reasonable to Choose Ignorance?
Imagine you are about to buy a new home, and the real estate agent says, “I have some more information about the maintenance history of the house. Do you want to see it?” The question seems silly; of course you do. It’s a basic principle of economics and rational decision-making that when making a transaction …
French Science & Pseudoscience: A Skeptic’s Tour of Paris
Thanks to the COVID-19 vaccines, I recently had the opportunity to visit Paris, France, for the first time. In addition to the usual art museums and tourist spots, I approached the city with the goal of visiting some of its scientific and pseudoscientific points of interest. France has a proud history of achievement in science …
Beware the Child Rescuers
As he drove from his home in North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong in the northwest neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Edgar Maddison Welch recorded a message for his two young daughters: “I can’t let you grow up in a world that’s so corrupt by evil, without at least standing up for you and for other …
This article is available for free to all.When Is It Reasonable to Choose Ignorance?
Imagine you are about to buy a new home, and the real estate agent says, “I have some more information about the maintenance history of the house. Do you want to see it?” The question seems silly. Of course, you do. It’s a basic principle of economics and rational decision-making that, when making a transaction …
From False Cause to False Cure: Autism and the Rich and Famous
The celebrities are back. Many of you will remember when, in 2007, actress and former Playboy model Jenny McCarthy published her book Louder Than Words, which attributed her son’s autism to vaccines. She and her boyfriend at the time, actor Jim Carrey, made the rounds of the talk shows, and McCarthy and her son appeared …
When QAnon Prophecy Fails
One of the best theme parties I’ve ever attended was on May 21, 2011. The evangelical Christian broadcaster Harold Camping had garnered considerable publicity with a prediction that The Rapture would occur on that date and that approximately 3 percent of the world’s population would be swept up to heaven to meet their maker. The …
Aspen Global Congress on Scientific Thinking and Action
On March 17–20, 2021, the Aspen Institute Science & Society Program (New York, NY) and the Instituto Questão de Ciência (Question of Science Institute [São Paulo, Brazil]) cosponsored the first Global Congress on Scientific Thinking and Action, originally planned for Rome but conducted over Zoom due to the pandemic. One hundred scientists, scholars, journalists, and …
Beware the Child Rescuers
As he drove from his home in North Carolina to Comet Ping Pong in the northwest neighborhood of Washington, D.C., Edgar Maddison Welch recorded a message for his two young daughters: “I can’t let you grow up in a world that’s so corrupt by evil, without at least standing up for you and for other …
The Tragedy of Our Commons
(Cover Image Credit: Pixabay) Not long ago, I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw a video of people in Perth, Australia, gathering in small crowds outdoors, no face coverings in sight. From my perspective in the United States, where an average of over 2,000 people a day were dying of COVID-19, it was …
This article is available for free to all.When QAnon Prophecy Fails
Featured Image Credit: Wikimedia One of the best theme parties I’ve ever attended was on May 21, 2011. The evangelical Christian broadcaster Harold Camping had garnered considerable publicity with a prediction that The Rapture would occur on that date and that approximately 3 percent of the world’s population would be swept up to heaven …
The COVID-19 Free Market Experiment
Cover Image Source: Pixabay My last column for Skeptical Inquirer landed me on a conservative Chicago-area talk radio program. I think something about the title, “COVID-19 and the Tyranny of Now,” caught the eye of one of the show’s hosts, so they invited me on to discuss the article in the morning drive slot. The …
Are You Afraid of the Thirteenth Floor? Superstition and Real Estate, Part 2
Cover Image: Elevator buttons from the Flamingo Hotel & Casino, site of CSICon 2019. (Author photo) In my May/June 2020 column, I described the influence of feng shui on the Chinese real estate market. Although it would be hard to match the pervasive presence of traditional Chinese superstition in real estate and other areas …
COVID-19 and the Tyranny of Now
On Friday, March 13, 2020, I invited a few friends over before we all went into lockdown. We did not stay six feet apart—the norm of social distancing had not yet been fully absorbed—but in a nod to good hygiene we washed, used disinfectant, and avoided shaking hands or hugging. That evening of food and …
This article is available for free to all.Brazilian Skeptics Take Center Stage in the COVID-19 Crisis
Last October, I wrote about my experiences with the nascent skepticism movement in Brazil. In August of 2019, I traveled to São Paulo to speak at a number of events organized by the newly formed Instituto Questão de Ciência (IQC; Question of Science Institute), and I was introduced to a remarkably energetic group of science …
This article is available for free to all.Did Superstition Cause the COVID-19 Outbreak?
Prologue Even before President Trump began calling it the “Chinese virus,” the outbreak of sudden acute respiratory coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) and the disease it causes, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), set the occasion for a disturbing wave of anti-Chinese racism. I am aware that, merely by writing about superstition and COVID-19, I might be accused of …
This article is available for free to all.Of Eye Movements and Autism: The Latest Chapter in a Continuing Controversy
A recent study of the communication technique rapid prompting method (RPM; a.k.a. spelling to communicate)1 in a prestigious journal bears the bold title “Eye-Tracking Reveals Agency in Assisted Autistic Communication.” Unfortunately, the study does nothing of the kind. It does, however, reveal the lengths to which proponents of this unsubstantiated communication method are willing to …
Superstition and Real Estate Part 1: The Chinese Market
This is the first of a two-part series on the effect of superstitious belief on the real estate market. The second installment will appear in a future Behavior & Belief column. I recently discovered a disturbing fact: my home office is in the northwest corner of my house, which is very bad. Furthermore, I often …
Are Atheists Sadder but Wiser?
Recently a friend and colleague posted a LiveScience article on Facebook that suggested atheists are more intelligent than religious believers (Geggel 2017), and soon I was drawn into one of those sticky internet conversations that rarely work out well. The article was based on a 2013 meta-analysis of sixty-three studies of the relationship of religious …
Afraid of the Thirteenth Floor? Superstition and Real Estate, Part 2
Banner photo: Elevator buttons from the Flamingo Hotel & Casino, site of CSICon 2019. (Author photo) In my January column, I described the influence of feng shui on the Chinese real estate market. Although it would be hard to match the pervasive influence of traditional Chinese superstition in real estate and other areas of …
Superstition and the Chinese Real Estate Market
Cover Image Source: Wikimedia commons I recently discovered a disturbing fact: my home office is in the northwest corner of my house, which is very bad. Furthermore, I often sit in my home office facing northwest, which is also very bad. So said Los Angeles feng shui expert Carol Assa in a New York Times …
Skepticism Blooms in Brazil
Brazil is considered a developing country with substantial levels of poverty, yet São Paulo, the largest city in South America, is a sophisticated modern metropolis and home to the largest university on the continent. Because citizens are guaranteed healthcare as a constitutional right, Brazil operates the largest national healthcare system in the world, and Brazilian …
This article is available for free to all.A Friday the 13th Appreciation of Taylor Swift
I don’t have any Taylor Swift albums, and I’ve never been to one of her concerts. I recognize that she is very talented and successful, but my musical tastes go in a different direction. I think my children were fans, but now that they are grown, even they have probably moved on to different tunes. …
Are Atheists Sadder but Wiser?
Recently, a friend and colleague posted a Live Science article on Facebook that suggested atheists are more intelligent than religious believers, and soon I was drawn into one of those sticky internet conversations that rarely work out well. The article was based on a 2013 meta-analysis of sixty-three studies of the relationship of religious belief …
An Adventure in Peer Review
Cover Image Source: Twitter Imagine the following scenario. Two social scientists write an article proposing a provocative new theory about women’s values, preferences, and the very essence of what it means to be a woman. The authors make some logical arguments, cite publicly available data, and, in support of each point, include several quotes—let’s …
Skepticism Blooms in Brazil
Brazil is considered a developing country with substantial levels of poverty, yet São Paulo, the largest city in South America, is a sophisticated modern metropolis and home to the largest university in South America. Because citizens are guaranteed healthcare as a constitutional right, Brazil operates the largest national healthcare system in the world, and Brazilian …
The New Wave of Exorcism
Cover Image: Logo for the 1973 film (Wikimedia) Exorcism is back. For many of us, our most vivid images of exorcism come from the 1973 movie, The Exorcist, based on the William Peter Blatty novel of the same name. Who can forget Linda Blair’s screaming, spinning head, and green projectile vomit? But the latest …
An Adventure in Peer Review
Cover Image Source: Twitter Imagine the following scenario. Two social scientists write an article proposing a provocative new theory about women’s values, preferences, and the very essence of what it means to be a woman. The authors make some logical arguments, cite publicly available data, and, in support of each point, include several quotes—let’s …
La Nueva Ola de Exorcismos
Cover Image caption: Logo del filme de 1973 (Wikimedia) El exorcismo está de vuelta. Para muchos de nosotros, las más vívidas imágenes del exorcismo provienen del filme de 1973, The Exorcist (El Exorcista), basada en la novela homónina de William Peter Blatty. ¿Quién puede olvidar los gritos de Linda Blair, la cabeza que giraba …
What Should Become of a Monument to Pseudoscience?
Cover Image: Samuel Hahnemann monument in Washington DC. (Source: Wikimedia) Everything Is Relative Homeopathy didn’t start out as a pseudoscience. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the most respected physicians practiced something called “heroic medicine.” Internal illnesses were treated by a brutal assortment of remedies that included bloodletting and purgatives. It was common …
Who Are More Biased: Liberals or Conservatives?
Recently Jane Mayer (2019) of The New Yorker wrote about the very close relationship between Fox News and President Donald Trump, outlining in great detail how the Murdoch family–owned news outlet functions as a tacit communication operation of the Trump White House and its political agenda. There is a revolving door of former Fox News …
In Praise of the Crutch-Makers
Cover Image Caption: X-ray of the author’s left foot taken a day after the accident. When I broke a bone in my foot, one of my first thoughts was of a cat I used to know. I was teaching at a small college, and I sometimes saw him lounging in the grass outside my …
National Down Syndrome Society Promotes Communication Pseudoscience
On January 10, 2019, the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS) offered a free public webinar on facilitated communication (FC), a thoroughly discredited communication method most often used with people who have autism. The webinar, “Facilitated Communication and Down Syndrome,” was sponsored by NDSS’s Inclusive Education Taskforce and was led by Christy Ashby, PhD, director of …
Who Are More Biased: Liberals or Conservatives?
Conservatives who, like the President, believe the mainstream media (MSM) have a liberal bias have been supported by evidence that journalists are more likely to identify as Democrats than Republicans.
An Artist with a Science-Based Mission
Janyce Boynton is a Maine collage artist who sells her work through her website (www.pineconeandsparrow.com/) and at local shows, but she is also a tireless advocate for science. She would never have predicted that science and skepticism would become such an important part of her life, but something happened to her over twenty years ago …
La Sociedad Nacional del Síndrome de Down promueve la pseudociencia de la comunicación
El 10 de enero de 2019, la Sociedad Nacional del Síndrome de Down estadounidense (NDSS) puso a disposición un seminario web gratuito y público sobre comunicación facilitada (CF), un método de comunicación totalmente desacreditado que mayormente se utiliza con personas autistas.
National Down Syndrome Society Promotes Communication Pseudoscience
As readers of this column will recall, FC is based on the theory that many people with profound language deficits suffer from a physical problem—an inability to produce the sounds for speech or the movements required for writing or typing—but are not cognitively impaired.
An Artist with a Science-Based Mission
Janyce Boynton is a Maine collage artist who sells her work through her website and at local shows.
Autism Wars: Science Strikes Back
In the field of autism treatment, the forces for science and evidence have won a few battles and lost a few. Unfortunately, some of the most recent victories have been on the side of pseudoscientific and fad therapies—but a new army of researchers, practitioners, and advocates is fighting back. Twenty years ago, it looked like …
Why Are Millennials Turning to Astrology?
Astrology, the oldest and most popular theory of human personality, doesn’t work. I played a small role in proving astrology doesn’t work when a student, an astrology enthusiast, came to me and said she wanted to conduct a test of astrology for her honors thesis research. To her credit, she was willing to let the …
Autism Wars: Science Strikes Back
Twenty years ago, it looked like facilitated communication (FC), a popular pseudoscientific treatment for autism, was dead.