This course is designed to provide students with some of the skills needed to critically evaluate fringe-science, paranormal, and otherwise unusual claims about human behavior that often appear in the popular media. In this course, we will place particular emphasis on how that remarkable, but fallible, information processor called the human brain sometimes leads us astray in our reasoning processes. Examples of pseudoscience and questionable science will be drawn from both traditional areas of psychology as well as physiological psychology and neuroscience. In all cases, students will be encouraged to keep an open mind concerning any and all controversial claims, but to insist on a high standard of evidence before accepting them.
Skepticism implies open-mindedness.
Kruger et al. Kelly et al. Lynn et al. A critical examination of the evidence. The fallibility of human reason in everyday life.