Learning Update 7

On Thursday we learned about hoaxes and some of the most infamous hoaxes in history. Something I enjoyed the most about their presentation was how they touched on the psychology behind hoaxes. As a pre-med student, I enjoy scientific reasoning by why certain things happen. How did people believe some of these hoaxes that are obviously scams to us now (which I say because of hindsight bias)? I think that confirmation bias plays a large role in this. People look for information and reasoning that supports beliefs they already have. If a couple desperately wants to believe their kidnapped child is still alive, and a psychic tells them that, it is so much easier to believe simply because the parents want to. This is exactly what Sylvia Browne did for around 40 years. She profited off of preying on concerned parents and even spread lies about White Slavery -- another topic we have touched on in this class. 

Another infamous hoax we learned about was the Piltdown man scheme orchestrated by Charles Dawson. The "missing link" in human evolution is something that all biology students are aware of, so I am not surprised that researchers in the field were eager to accept his findings as true. As a researcher myself, I have been taught that the worst thing you can do is fabricate your findings. It is such a faux pas, that when another scientist releases their findings you would never expect them to be made up. This is another instance where confirmation bias most likely played a role since an aspect of it involves viewing ambiguous evidence as proof that your existing view is right. However, it is also due to the authority figures and institutions that backed up his findings, adding to Dawson's credibility.