In the article “Seven Warning Signs of Bogus Science” the author Robert L. Park discusses seven different warning signs that mayprove that a science being presented is bogus. The first sign is “The discoverpitches the claim directly to the media.”(Park) This is when a scientist does not give other scientist a chance to study the claim or perform research on the claim that is being presented and takes it straight to the media.
The second sign is “The discoverer says that a powerful establishment is trying to suppress his or her work.”(Park) This is when a scientist tries to say that they have come up with this great invention or discovery but can notpresent it because the government or other agencies don’t want it to be discovered.
The third sign is “ The scientific effect involved is always at the very limit of detection.”(Park) This means that there are no facts to back up what is being presented. Meaning that the scientist says that something exist but has no clear evidence that is does.
The fourth sign is “Evidence for a discovery is anecdotal.”(Park) This means that the evidence presented may be true but does not go with the conclusion. An example would be if I say that “my uncle drank alcohol like a fish but died healthy in a freak accident.” This statement does not prove that alcohol doesn’t cause liver disease.
The fifth sign is “The discoverer says a belief is credible because it has endured for centuries.”(Park) This means that old remedies that may have worked in a certain era or not guaranteed to be accurate. There are a lot of things that we as human beings did not know about 100 years ago that we know now which can disprove that certain remedies back then were not the cause of a person getting well.
The sixth sign is “The discoverer has worked in isolation.”(Park) This means that a scientistscomes up with this big breakthrough all alone. This is probally not true because most scientist used other scientist work and build on it and you also need a witness to prove that the breakthrough was indeed a breakthrough.
The seventh and final sign is “The discoverer must propose new laws of nature to explain an observation.”(Park) This means that if you have to change laws of nature to prove your theory than it could not be right.
Robert L. Park wrote this article and came up with this seven signs to help judges in determining whether a expert testimony from a witness was legit but I believe that this article can help us all spot bogus science or help us be aware that all science is not legit.
In the article “Why Bogus Therapies Often Seem to Work” by Barry L Beyerstein, he listseveral reasons on why people think that certain therapies work. The first reason is “The disease may have run it natural course.”(Beyerstein) A lot of therapies may appear to be legit because the illness is not major and has run its natural course but because you have started to take a herb or started a therapy at the same time that the illness is ending it seems that the herb or therapy is the cause of you miraculsly recovery.
The second reason is “Many diseases are cyclical.”(Beyerstein) This means that some diseases or illness have cycles they are bad then good and a lot of people mistake the good times as a cure of the illness or disease if they are taking any new medication on therapy.
The third reason is “The placebo effect may be responsible.”(Beyerstein) The placebo effect means that some kind of emotional or cognitive effect has caused the person to feel better not the therapy or medicine.
The fourth reason is “People who hedge their bets credit the wrong thing.”(Beyerstein) This is when a person is having an alternative treatment and a science based treatment and become better. Most of the time credit is given to the alternative treatment when it could have been the scientific treatment that actually worked.
The fifth reason is “The orginal diagnosis or prognosis may have been incorrect.”(Beyerstein) Some people are diagnose with the wrong illness for example if you are diagnosed with some type of hearing problem but it really is just water in your ear you can go and take an alternative drug and think that is the cure to you hearing better, when in accutality it is because the water has drained of your ear.
The sixth reason is “Temporary mood improvement can be confused with cure.”(Beyerstein) This just means that a lot of alternative doctors or therapist have uplifting spirits and can cause you to fell better emotionally and this can be confused with a cure.
The seventh and final reason is “Psychological needs can distort what people perceive and do.”(Beyerstein) This means that if you really believe in alternative medicines or therapy no matter what the results are in your condition you still belive that the alternative method is working.
We can all look at the list that Barry L. Beyerstein wrote and can think of at least one person you know or have heard about that has claimed a therapy or alternative medicine has worked but did not have scientific proof that it worked. And one of these reasons listed could be why they believed that the method worked.
In the article “Be Wary of Attachment Therapy” byShannon-Bridget Maloney. Maloney discusses what Attachment Therapy is, the Attachment Community, Deaths that have been caused by this therapy, and why we need to be aware of it.
Attachment therapy is a therapy given to children with Reactive Attachment Disorder(RAD) have difficulty or are unable to form attachments in early life. The disorder may manifest itself through indiscriminant attachments, overfriendliness, or withdrawal from others.(Maloney) Maloney says that Attachment Therapy has four characteristics that go against accepted principles of psycohogicalpractice.
The first one is that a child must show rage or anger that is within him or herself in order to improve. The second is that if a child asks for the treatment to stop it is believed that the child is resisting and the level of treatment willthe increased. The third is having experienced body holders hold the child for long periods of time. The fourth is that Attachement Therapist tell children how they are feeling rather than the child telling the therapist how they feel.
This Attachment Therapy has been proven to be bogus and non-effective yet there are still therapist using this treatment and there are parents out there allowing their childento go through these treatments. Parents are told that Attachment Therapy is the only way to cure their child and if they don’t do or continue the therapy the child will become some type of serial killer.
Attachment Therapy has been implicated in the deaths of at least four children.(Maloney) The therapist never take the blame. They don’t believe that their therapy is what caused the childsdeath. My opinion is that this therapy is bogus and has not been proven to work. Any time that you have to abuse a child in order for the child to behave the way you want them to behave is not therapy it is abuse. If a child did respond to this therapy it would most likely be out of fear and not because the therapy helped the child.
After reading the three mentioned articles I can see why scientific investigation and critical thinking is important. You have to be ab