Lecture 1

Question 1

Why people sometimes won’t change their minds when presented evidence

Answer 1

People base their beliefs on testimony, confirmation bias (insensitive to contrary evidence), intellectual arrogance

Question 2

Illusion of explanatory depth

Answer 2

people think they understand complex phenomena better than they actually do

Question 3

Bullshit meaning

Answer 3

speech intended to persuade without regard for truth

Question 4

Features of science

Answer 4

1. Knowledge-oriented (aims to generate knowledge)
2. Naturalism (provides natural explanations of natural phenomena)
3. Empiricism (advances claims that can be tested against observational evidence)
4. Evidentialism (updates claims based on available evidence)
5. Opennes to falsification (abandons any idea that has been thoroughly refuted)
6. Social and institutional structure (involves the broader scientific community)

Question 5

Pseudoscience meaning

Answer 5

deceptive attempts to appear
scientific (fake science)

Question 6

Natural phenomena meaning

Answer 6

objects, events, regularities, or processes that are sufficiently uniform to make them susceptible to systematic study

Question 7

Theory of falsificationism meaning

Answer 7

scientific reasoning proceeds by attempting to disprove ideas rather than to prove them right-that is, by advancing ‘bold and risky conjectures’ and then trying to falsify or refute them

Question 8

Observer-expectancy effect

Answer 8

a scientist’s expectations lead her to unconsciously influence the behaviour of experimental subjects

Question 9

laypeople/novice

Answer 9

people who have little information in the specified domain