PNB 3RM3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Illusory Correlation, Bloodletting, Falsifiability
12 Jul 2017
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Module 2: why is empirical thinking better than other forms of thinking - 3 mistakes made by laypeople. Any personal story or experience, whether it"s yours or someone else"s. Doesn"t involve lots of cognitive processes to understand. New antidepressant prescription - research done on product and it seems to work, but friend says not to take it. Your friend"s opinion is more important than science. Illusory correlations - searching for a reason why/ causally relating two salient events that are probably not actually correlated. Reject anecdotes because: there is a lack of comparison groups. Also reject because life is full of confounds. There may be other reasons why you do well on a test, other than listening to music. Comparison groups: using another group to compare what would"ve. Comparison groups: using another group to compare what would"ve happened with or without the event you"re interested in. Important because: allows you to test any hypothesis you have.
