PS1014 - BAD SCIENCE (1-5)

Question 1

Pseudoscience

Answer 1

collection of beliefs/practices mistaken as being based on scientific methods
- isn’t something done to us, we do it to ourselves

Question 2

Examples of Pseudoscience

Answer 2

• Aqua Detox
• Ear Candles
• Detox Patches

Question 3

Who proved Ear candles wrong

Answer 3

medical journal ‘Laryngoscope’

Question 4

Channel 4’s Extreme Celebrity Detox

Answer 4

• no scientific meaning, more of a cultural product
• Angola & Mozambique, purification and cleansing rituals

Question 5

What is Brain Gym?

Answer 5

• educational tool designed to stimulate kids minds

Question 6

Brain Gym - pseudoscience in schools

Answer 6

‘enhance the experience of whole brain learning’
- used in 100s of schools, and Department for Education and Skills website

Question 7

Examples of Brain Gym techniques

Answer 7

brain buttons, theatrical yawning, ear wiggling

Question 8

Is Brain gym real or rubbish?

Answer 8

Rubbish!
- created by people who believe there is no water in processed foods
- use fancy neuroscientific terms to overcompensate lack of scientific proof

Question 9

Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 9

March 2008 edition
- people buy into bogus explanations, when dressed up with technical words

Question 10

What do people tend to see longer explanations as?

Answer 10

‘good ones’ and more similar to ‘experts’

Question 11

Why do people tend to believe longer explanations?

Answer 11

• makes people feel there is an explanation, clarity
• use of fancy neuroscientific terms to overcompensate for lack of scientific proof

Question 12

The Progenium XY Complex

Answer 12

Most moisturising creams include ingredients that claim to provide benefits but not actually proven

Question 13

Problems with moisturising creams

Answer 13

• Our skin is nearly impermeable
• They manipulate studies
• Use fancy language to fool consumers

Question 14

What is learned form the Progenium XY Complex?

Answer 14

• consumers need to be more sceptical
• high price doesn’t mean better results
• sometimes simplicity is the best

Question 15

Moral Concerns

Answer 15

• industry marketing tactics can be problematic
• promoting shortcuts to health appearance, rather than healthy lifestyle choice
• concerning when targeting young women

Question 16

Barbie Liberation Organisation

Answer 16

• feminist direct action group
• switched voice circuits of Teen Talk Barbies in 1990s

Question 17

What is the Barbie Liberation Organisation an example of?

Answer 17

challenging problematic messages around gender and science that is often perpetuated by cosmetics industry

Question 18

Homeopathy

Answer 18

Paradigmatic example of alternative therapy
- sciencey-sounding framework, no evidence
- extensive research showing pills perform no better than placebo

Question 19

Homeopathy - devised by?

Answer 19

German doctor, Samuel Hahnemann, late 18th century

Question 20

Homeopathy - Samuel Hahnemann’s idea

Answer 20

Idea that substances that would induce symptoms in healthy people, could also be used to treat same symptoms in sick people

Question 21

Samuel Hahnemann - Cinchona bark

Answer 21

suggested treatment for malaria
- gave him symptoms of malaria when taken
- said if given to someone with malaria it would treat them