Science, Pseudo-science, Non-sense, and Critical Thinking

Why the Differences Matter

Gershon Ben-Shakhar, Marianna Barr

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• ISBN:
  9781351402491
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psicología
• Subtopic: Investigación y metodología en psicología

Science, Pseudo-science, Non-sense, and Critical Thinking shines an unforgiving light on popular and lucrative 'miraculous' practices that promise to offer answers during times of trouble. Throughout the book, the authors unfold the fallacies underlying these practices, as well as consumers' need and desire to believe in them.

Adopting a scientific approach, the book critically evaluates research into cold-reading practices, such as those that claim to be able to communicate with the afterlife or posess supernatural powers, before considering a range of pseudo-sciences including graphology and polygraph interrogation, exposing the pretensions of these practices in a clear and logical fashion. The book seeks to encourage critical thinking throughout, asking whether there is any scientific evidence to support these practitioners' abilities to supply us with reliable answers, and discussing the various factors that comprise the psychological mechanism of belief.

Written in a fluent and accessible style, Science, Pseudo-science, Non-sense, and Critical Thinking is aimed at interested professionals and the public at large.

1

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You have great unfulfilled potential

Cold (psychic) reading

What is cold reading?

We have tried to track the term “cold reading”, but our efforts have proved of no avail. It could be that the term comes from the alleged communication with spirits and the dead, who belong to the “cold world”. The reading refers, of course, to the interpretations, assessments, and predictions supplied by the various readers.

The American psychologist Ray Hyman – the most important researcher of cold reading (or psychic reading) and the paranormal, and an amateur magician – relates that during his college days, he used to make a living from palmistry and magic. When he started working as a palm reader, he did not believe in this practice but knew that in order to be able to sell his services he needed to pretend that he was a believer, which he did. As a result of his success with the readings and the positive feedback he received from his clients, he became, in due course, a firm believer of the practice. One day, a friend of Hyman, of whom he thought highly, proposed to him an interesting experiment: to purposely inverse the reading of what the lines in the palms “showed”. Hyman tried it with several clients, and to his amazement, the readings were not any less successful! This incident was the beginning of his interest in the enormous psychological powers that influence both readers and clients. According to Hyman, cold reading constitutes a “prototype to how compelling, but false, beliefs come about”.

Cold reading is a procedure during which the readers are able to convince strangers they have never met before that they are familiar with everything there is to know about them, including their personality traits, problems, and dilemmas. As a rule, such a reading is comprised from very general statements that can be applied to almost anyone; nevertheless, it provides clients with information that seems to be tailored to their conditions and personalities.

Hyman identifies three main reasons for the success of cold reading:

(1) … we all are basically more alike than different; (2) … our problems are generated by the same major transitions of birth, puberty, work, marriage, children, old age, and death; (3) … with the exception of curiosity seekers and troublemakers, people come to a character reader because they need someone to listen to their conflicts typically involving love, money, and health.

But the cold readers go far beyond these common denominators. Indeed, they make meticulous detectives. They gather as much information as they can, regarding the clients prior to their encounter with them. If the meeting is set in a telephone conversation, the readers can extract information from various sources, especially today in the age of the internet and various social networks. In addition, the readers rely on very good memory and an acute sense of observation. During the meeting itself, they examine the clients carefully: the study of their clothes – style, neatness, cost, age – provides a good insight into their socioeconomic level, measure of extraversion or introversion, measure of conservatism, and so on. Hyman illustrates this aspect through a story told by a well-known magician in the 1930s: a young woman in her late twenties or early thirties visited a character reader. She was wearing expensive jewels, a wedding band, but a cheap-looking black dress. The reader noticed that the shoes she was wearing were being advertised at that time for people with foot problems. By means of these observations alone, the reader managed to amaze his client. He understood that she was there either with a romantic or a financial problem. From the black dress, he concluded that she had lost her husband not too long ago. From the expensive jewels, he inferred that her financial situation had been better before his passing, and the cheap material of her dress and the orthopedic shoes provided the proof that he had left her in a bad financial condition and that she had to work to earn her living. All of these led the skillful reader to describe the woman’s dilemma quite correctly: she had met a man who had proposed to her, she wanted to accept in order to better her dire financial condition but felt guilty to marry so soon after her husband’s death. The reader, of course, told her what she longed to hear: that she could marry at once.

Simple, readily available data – such as age and gender – are also a good clue for sizing up the clients. The Israeli psychologist and anthropologist Yoram Bilu relates the story of a rabbi healer whom he met during one of his studies who told him how it is possible to guess with high probability the problems of the women seeking his help: the young ones come with romantic problems, the middle-aged ones with problems related to their spouses or children, and the old ones with health problems.

The physical characteristics of the clients – weight, posture, body movements, and looks – also provide good clues. Other good “tellers” are the figure of speech, language use, and eye contact. The crucial information that the readers extract from the initial examination of the client narrows down considerably the number of categories into which they may be classified. Knowledge of actuarial and statistical data regarding subcultures and populations, as we will see later on, also provides the basis for making an accurate assessment of the client. And the dynamics of the reading is such that what the reader is ignorant of or wrong about, the client will immediately complete or correct.

The aim of the readers is to arrive as quickly as possible to the heart of the problem bothering the clients. On the basis of the initial assessment, they offer several directions, which they deliver in very general terms, while closely examining the clients’ reactions, such as eye movements, expansion of the pupils, and other bodily reactions. When the readers are on the right track, they will receive confirmation from the clients’ reactions. If the clients’ reactions do not encourage the readers to continue their line of thought, the latter will change their course immediately. The clients may also react verbally, negating or reaffirming the statements, mostly without being aware of it at all.

At this point, the clients are already convinced that by some miracle, the readers have gained direct access to their innermost thoughts and feelings, and their defense mechanisms weaken. Very often, the clients open their hearts to the readers who are very good listeners, and share with them the problems that worry them. Ultimately, the readers supply the clients with an assessment that reflects nothing more than the information they had received from the clients, and, as we have pointed out, without the latter being aware of it. And they do it in a way that astounds the clients and makes them feel like an open book.

Tarot cards

Since there is sufficient literature on the history of tarot cards and their functions,¹ we do not aim here to review a detailed history of them, but rather discuss their use in cold reading, since they seem to be the bread and butter of this practice. But their validity in character reading or future predictions is as well founded as is the use of the crystal ball.

Tarot (originally French-named) cards are a set of cards originally designed as a game. But over time, a popular belief has been adopted by many that these cards can help us predict the future. To begin, we adopt Paul Huson’s chronology of the tarot from their inception in Europe:

In the fourteenth century the Mamlûk playing cards were introduced into Europe and were used for games. European decks generally comprised four suits, each headed by a king and one or two ministers. The ministers evolved into knights, knaves, and queens. In the fifteenth century 22 pictorial trump cards were added to the Tarot deck in Italy, which became the standard deck, and painted cards were created for the nobility. In the sixteenth century printed Tarot were produced in Florence, Bologna and Ferrara and they spread to France, Switzerland, Belgium and Spain. Caption and roman numerals were added to the trumps. At this stage, Tarot cards were widely used for card games. But by the eighteenth century the Tarot cards acquired, in addition to their game function, the function of cartomancy (practice of foretelling the future using cards), and from the nineteenth century onwards – during which periods Hebrew Kabbalistic symbolism and astrology were incorporated into the Tarot – the cards began to be used exclusively for cartomancy.

(p. xv)

In addition to serving as a tool for future predictions, in the twentieth century, tarot also began to serve as a tool for inner observation and reflection, for a better understanding of personality components and inclinations. The Swiss psychoanalyst Carl G. Jung saw in tarot a representation of what he termed “archetypes”, that is, basic types or modes of thought prevailing in what he termed “collective unconscious”, emanating from the accumulated human experience at large. Thus, the emperor’s card, for instance, will symbolize the ultimate patriarch or the father figure. Indeed, there are psychotherapists – in particular, Jungian – who use tarot cards as a kind of projective technique. The clients are required to choose the cards with which they feel most affinity. Some therapists encourage their clients to clarify their situations or their relationships with others through the figures or the situations reflected in the cards.

But the idea that we may produce answers to essential questions occupying our minds and time through an arbitrary choice of cards is so preposterous that it is not really necessary to disqualify it through scientifically based evidence. Indeed, there are almost no such experiments in existence. The ones that do exist were conducted in similar methods that Shawn Carlson employed in his study on astrology (see Chapter 2 on astrology). Equally ridiculous seem to us the “basic instructions” outlined by the Israeli Tarot reader Gidi Gilboa in his book. Judge for yourselves:

Try to avoid eating for two to three hours before you open the cards.

Try to shower or purge yourself before opening the cards.

Turn to the cosmic powers (according to your view) and ask them to help you in the card reading.

Try using only your left hand in handling the cards.

If you wish to draw positive energies to the cards, light a candle or incense in the room.

Greet the clients cordially and offer them a drink.

Sit with your back to the North and seat the clients on the opposite end of the table facing you.

As we pointed out, various mystics and cold readers use tarot cards extensively. But in contrast to the psychotherapist, who may use the cards in the service of a therapeutic process and treat a card and its representation symbolically, the various cold readers perform a literal reading of the card, and this is a world of difference. We believe that the use of accessories such as tarot cards, a crystal ball, tea leaves, and dried coffee serves mainly to create the illusion that there is an independent, “objective” instrument that guides the reader. It also buys the readers more time to observe and assess their customers carefully.

It is our impression that astrology and tarot card reading are the most widespread practices in the lucrative business of future predictions, albeit mystics use other peculiar aids in their readings as well, such as tea leaves, turned cups of coffee once the liquid has dried and left traces of the dried content, and palmistry. All of them are based on the same psychological mechanisms reviewed above, which is also why they are all referred to by the generic name “cold reading”.

Cold reading and psychological science

As we have seen, cold readers are quite swift, skilled people. But the truly astonishing thing about cold reading is that even readers lacking any talents or skills can persuade people that they have deciphered their “true” personality. All they need to do is to propose a reasonable hypothesis – and the rest will be done by the clients themselves. And it is possible to achieve a considerable level of success also when an invariable personality description is used, known in the psychological literature as “stock spiel” – one rule for all.

The first experiment documented in the psychological literature that demonstrates how a stock spiel works was conducted in 1949 by Bertram Forer with the aid of his “Introduction to Psychology” students. Forer distributed to 39 students a standard personality test. After a week had passed, he gave each one of the students a uniform personality description – that may also be termed “profile” – which, they were told, was drawn up from their tests. It included very general amorphous statements which Forer put together from an astrology book he had purchased at a newspaper stand. The students were asked to rank the degree of suitability of the profile they had received to their personality on a scale from 0 (no match) to 5 (perfect match). The average grade obtained was 4.26. Of his 39 students, 16 (41%) ranked the profile as a perfect description of their personality. Only four ranked it under 4. This experiment became a standard exercise in the “Introduction to Psychology” course in many universities across the world, and students have continued to produce similar results. This phenomenon is known in the psychological literature as the “Forer Effect” or the “Barnum Effect”. P.T. Barnum was a businessman, an impresario, and a circus man who used to employ this method in his performances.

In an article published in 1955, American psychologist Norman Sundberg provides examples of profiles that demonstrate the Barnum Effect well. Here is one such example that may suit any male student:

You are a person who is very normal in his attitudes …. You get along well without effort …. You are neither overly conventional nor overly individualistic. Your prevailing mood is one of optimism and constructive effort, and you are not troubled by periods of depression ….

Sundberg found that female students responded even more readily to the following sketch:

You appear to be a cheerful, well-balanced person. You may have some alternation of happy and unhappy moods, but they are not extreme now. You have few or no problems with your health …. Your interests are wide. You are fairly self-confident and usually think clearly.

In one experiment, Sundberg distributed to 44 students the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). This is a standard personality test designed to diagnose psychopathologies in adults and has been employed as a central tool in personality research. It was and has remained one of the most important tools in the toolbox of clinical psychologists. Two psychologists, experienced in analyzing MMPI results, drafted a personality description for each student based on the MMPI results. Then, each student received two profiles: one drafted by the psychologist, and the other uniform one, invented and drafted in very general terms. When they were asked to choose the profile closer to their personality, of the 44 students, 26 (59%) chose the invented one. This showed that a general, invented description may be perceived as a better description than the one drafted by professional psychologists and based on one of the better assessment tools in psychology. In the 1970s, the American psychologist Charles Snyder and his colleagues conducted a number of experiments in order to further investiga...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 You have great unfulfilled potential: cold (psychic) reading
• 2 “They love you and you know that”: astrology
• 3 Show me your handwriting and I’ll tell you who you are: graphology
• 4 Pinocchio’s nose: the truth behind the lie detector
• 5 “Since man cannot live without miracles, he will provide himself with miracles of his own making”: the belief in practices based on cold reading, mysticism, and pseudo-science
• 6 A final word
• Index