Posted by Ian on 2010-01-23
Just been reading a thoroughly entertaining and enlightening book called Bad Science by Ben Goldacre. His agenda is that science is completely misrepresented in the newspapers due to a mixture of lazy journalism (sensational stories sell papers), the inherent greed of pharmaceutical companies to put the best spin on their products and the untrustworthiness of many of those who put themselves forward as experts.
Essentially if you delve into the actual research or paper that is behind the majority of health scare headlines, you will find either that it’s conjecture, rather than empirically proved, or that the conclusions of the paper it’s based upon have been completely distorted.
I must say having read this book it’s hard to know how anyone could possibly think that homeopathic medicine can possibly do any good; or indeed that a dose of detox is going to be beneficial in any capacity.
With homeopathy, not only is the factual evidence that it works non-existent; but also the science behind it (diluting the ‘substance’ causing the disease in water to such a degree that there’s hardly a molecule of it that remains in the supposed cure) is naive beyond comprehension.
That people believe it works is almost certainly a mixture of the extraordinary efficacy of the placebo and the fact that soon after the ‘medicine’ is taken many would have got better anyway.
Of course, as a magician, to scoff at the gullibility of members of the public is rather hypocritical. As much of what we do, and say, is also complete nonsense - and certainly wouldn’t bear scrutiny if tested in a laboratory or with a control group. Listen, for instance, to what most mind readers claim and you will realise that it’s as meaningless, or downright untrue, as any of the most outrageous tabloid headlines.
Maybe, therefore, we should be thankful for the fact that people on the whole are willing to believe something based on persuasive wording, anecdotal evidence and a gut feeling that it sounds right.
My own personal favourite piece of information that came out of the book also has implications for magicians – but from a rather different perspective. A paper by Justin Kruger and David Dunning found out that people who are incompetent suffer a dual burden. Not only are they incompetent but they are also too incompetent to assess their own incompetence: and furthermore are unable to recognise competence in others.
I have always wondered why it is that certain magicians believe themselves to be good – when they are clearly not; and also seem to think other magicians are good –when they are clearly not. Now the reason is clear.
Now that I know this I will no longer be critical of such magicians: it’s clearly inbuilt into their psychological make-up!
Essentially if you delve into the actual research or paper that is behind the majority of health scare headlines, you will find either that it’s conjecture, rather than empirically proved, or that the conclusions of the paper it’s based upon have been completely distorted.
I must say having read this book it’s hard to know how anyone could possibly think that homeopathic medicine can possibly do any good; or indeed that a dose of detox is going to be beneficial in any capacity.
With homeopathy, not only is the factual evidence that it works non-existent; but also the science behind it (diluting the ‘substance’ causing the disease in water to such a degree that there’s hardly a molecule of it that remains in the supposed cure) is naive beyond comprehension.
That people believe it works is almost certainly a mixture of the extraordinary efficacy of the placebo and the fact that soon after the ‘medicine’ is taken many would have got better anyway.
Of course, as a magician, to scoff at the gullibility of members of the public is rather hypocritical. As much of what we do, and say, is also complete nonsense - and certainly wouldn’t bear scrutiny if tested in a laboratory or with a control group. Listen, for instance, to what most mind readers claim and you will realise that it’s as meaningless, or downright untrue, as any of the most outrageous tabloid headlines.
Maybe, therefore, we should be thankful for the fact that people on the whole are willing to believe something based on persuasive wording, anecdotal evidence and a gut feeling that it sounds right.
My own personal favourite piece of information that came out of the book also has implications for magicians – but from a rather different perspective. A paper by Justin Kruger and David Dunning found out that people who are incompetent suffer a dual burden. Not only are they incompetent but they are also too incompetent to assess their own incompetence: and furthermore are unable to recognise competence in others.
I have always wondered why it is that certain magicians believe themselves to be good – when they are clearly not; and also seem to think other magicians are good –when they are clearly not. Now the reason is clear.
Now that I know this I will no longer be critical of such magicians: it’s clearly inbuilt into their psychological make-up!
