SPED102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Confirmation Bias, Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitor, Fox Sisters
8 May 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
SPED102 Lecture
Week 5
V: Pathological Science
The science of things that aren’t so
• Scientists get it wrong too!
• The key issue is how mistakes are handled
• Langmuir summarises the pitfalls that scientists may fall into
• Most of his examples were from physics
Natural science examples
• N Rays - do not exist
• Scientists who believed they could see them were victims of self-deception
• Cold Fusion - ‘the scientific fiasco of the century’
• Benveniste dilution experiments (homeopathy)
Other examples
• Facilitated communication
• Extra sensory perception - the field of parapsychology
Why does pathological science exist?
• Confirmation bias
Confirmation bias
• “It is the peculiar and perpetual error of the human understanding to be more moved and
excited by affirmatives than by negatives” - Francis Bacon
• Selective thinking - the tendency to look for evidence that confirms our beliefs, and ignore
anything that disconfirms or contradicts our beliefs
Fraud
• Rare in all disciplines but it does occur
• Not usually implicated in pathological science
• Possible examples
• Wakefield vaccine research
• Parapsychology
Bad science or fraud?
• Andrew Wakefield - very small case series of 12 children published in THe Lancet in 1998
that he claimed at subsequent press conference suggested a relationship between the MMR
vaccination and autism
• Motivated many anti-vaccination groups (e.g. Australian Vaccination Network)
• Decreases in vaccination rates has led to increase in childhood illnesses, morbidity and death
• Despite the casts evidence disproving the hypothesis, many continue to believe it is true
• Paper published in 1998
• In 2003, Wakefield was accused of serious misconduct and undeclared conflicts of interest
• Research was funded by a legal firm involved in litigation against vaccine
manufacturers
• Received large personal payments from the legal firm
• Was reported as developing an alternative measles “vaccine” (later claimed to be a
nutritional supplement) and would potentially benefit financially from the
controversy
• Subsequently, 10 of the 12 co-authors retracted the claims of a causal link
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Document Summary
The science of things that aren"t so: scientists get it wrong too, the key issue is how mistakes are handled, langmuir summarises the pitfalls that scientists may fall into, most of his examples were from physics. Natural science examples: n rays - do not exist, scientists who believed they could see them were victims of self-deception, cold fusion - the scientific fiasco of the century", benveniste dilution experiments (homeopathy) Other examples: facilitated communication, extra sensory perception - the field of parapsychology. Why does pathological science exist: confirmation bias. Fraud: rare in all disciplines but it does occur, not usually implicated in pathological science, possible examples, wakefield vaccine research, parapsychology. Journals will often refuse to publish non-significant result or unsuccessful replications. Issue across all disciplines - psychology, medicine, education, etc: for example, pharmaceutical companies criticised for only publishing successfully trials, e. g.
