Navigation Critical Thinking in Medicine Philosophy and Science What is Science? What is a Skeptic? Cognitive Dissonance The “Placebo Effect” Cognitive Biases Argumentation and Logic Logical Fallacies The Plural of Anecdote is Not Data Pseudoscience Denialism and Pseudoskepticism AIDS Denialism Vaccine Denialism Conspiracy! Scientific Studies in Medicine Statistics and Risk Bayesian Methodology Why Won’t You […]
John Byrne MD
Conspiracy! – John Byrne MD
Contents 1 Conspiracy 2 Conspiracy Theory 3 Characteristics of Conspiracy Theories 4 Prevalence 5 Psychology 6 Evaluating the Logic of Conspiracy Theories 7 Medical Conspiracy Theories 8 Conclusion 9 References and Links Conspiracy Dictionary.com lists a definition as: “an agreement by two or more persons to commit a crime, fraud, or other wrongful act.” Conspiracies happen. The assassination of President Lincoln was a conspiracy. Most internet scams are conspiracies. The Madoff Investment Scandal was a conspiracy. The Watergate scandal was a conspiracy. Price fixing is a conspiracy. Real conspiracies […]
Cognitive Dissonance – John Byrne MD
Contents 1 What is Cognitive Dissonance? 2 Supporting the Theory 3 Cognitive Dissonance and the Self 4 Cognitive ‘Consonance’ 5 Dissonance Management, Science and Pseudoscience 6 Motivated Reasoning 7 “The Backfire Effect” 8 Cognitive Dissonance and Baby Steps 9 Examples 10 Conclusion 11 References and Links What is Cognitive Dissonance? How can a person hold two mutually contradictory beliefs at the same time? Psychologist Leon Festinger speculated in 1956 […]
Believe In or Believe That? – John Byrne MD
Of Belief-Ins and Belief-Thats Contents 1 Of Belief-Ins and Belief-Thats 2 Belief-in 3 Belief-that 4 ‘In’ and ‘That’, Is and Ought, Faith and Claims 5 Science is a Belief-in and a Belief-that 6 Conclusion 7 References and Links 8 Appendix – Definitions of Belief The word belief comes with a lot of baggage. The word […]
What is a Skeptic? – John Byrne MD*
Contents 1 What Do We Mean By Skeptic? 2 Skepticism and Science 3 Skeptical Tools 3.1 ** Hume’s Fork and Falsification: 3.2 **Occam’s Razor : 3.3 **Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence”: 3.4 **Correlation is Not Necessarily Causation: 4 Limits and Ethics 5 Conclusion 6 References and Links What Do We Mean By Skeptic? The words ‘skeptic’ and ‘skepticism‘ create a lot of confusion. To the […]