PSYB01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Skeptical Movement, Illusory Correlation, Cognitive Bias
Document Summary
Articles and books make claims about the beneficial or harmful effects of particular diets or vitamins on one"s personality, health, or sex life draw conclusions about our beliefs concerning variety of topics. Evidence is needed: when relying on intuition, we accept unquestioningly what our personal judgement or a single story about one person"s experience tells us about the world. Problem: many cognitive and motivational biases affect our perceptions, so more likely to draw erroneous conclusions. Belief that statement of authority figures must be true: authority and intuition are sources of ideas about behaviour. Scientific skepticism: ideas must be evaluated on the basis of careful logic and results from scientific investigations. Fundamental characteristic of scientific method is empiricism: empiricism: knowledge based on structured, systematic observation, first, develop a hypothesis; then, collect data to evaluate hypothesis. Should always ask for credentials of authoritative individual and any funding sources (i. e. companies: pseudoscience: uses scientific terms to substantiate claims without using scientific data.
