This document discusses the costs of pseudoscience from a psychological perspective. It outlines how pseudoscience can lead to misinformation that denies genuine health risks or promises illusory benefits. It also discusses how pseudoscience can facilitate fraud and cause adverse health effects. Additionally, the erosion of critical thinking from pseudoscience can undermine empirical knowledge and civic governance. As scientists, psychologists have an ethical duty to promote scientific literacy and skepticism to counter the influence of pseudoscience according to the Psychological Society of Ireland’s code of ethics.

1. PS409
Psychology, Science,
& Pseudoscience
Dr Brian Hughes
School of Psychology
brian.hughes@nuigalway.ie @b_m_hughes

2. Why bother?

3. Why bother?
Direct costs of pseudoscience
Misinformation costs
Denial of genuine risks, e.g.:
AIDS, cancer pseudoscience
Poorly targeted public health campaigns
Promise of illusory/non-existent benefits, e.g.:
Facilitated communication (autism)

4. AIDS pseudoscience (a small sample)
• AIDS is caused by recreational drug use, HIV is a
“harmless passenger virus” (Duesberg, 1996)
• Antiretroviral drugs actually cause AIDS (Duesberg, 1996)
• The AIDS virus was engineered by the US military for
use in bio-warfare and population control (various)
• Natural remedies, such as liquorice, can be used to cure
AIDS (various)
• Major pharmaceutical corporations suppress
knowledge about natural remedies for AIDS to protect
profits (various)
• The US government allows AIDS to spread in order to
cull sections of its own population (Kramer, 1989)
• AIDS as a disease doesn’t exist; it is a “social psychosis…
a condition of the body politic” (Dean, 1993)
• AIDS is a social construction; based on a metaphor for
the ruling elite’s conspiracy to rid America of its
minorities, the “threat to America’s immune system”
(O’Neill, 1992)

5. Why bother?
Direct costs of pseudoscience
Misinformation costs
Denial of genuine risks, e.g.:
AIDS, cancer pseudoscience
Poorly targeted public health campaigns
Promise of illusory/non-existent benefits, e.g.:
Facilitated communication (autism)
Substantive costs
Feasibility of fraud, e.g.:
Fraudulent prognosticators, healers,
confidence tricksters
Adverse effects of untested services, e.g.:
Past-life regression therapy, rebirthing
therapy

6. Why bother?
Indirect costs of pseudoscience
Erosion of judgement
competence
Unwarranted scepticism
toward all empirical
knowledge
Dismissal of global
warming
Holocaust denial
Immigration scare-
mongering
Reactionary responses
to economic recession

7. September 2002
Iraq has biological and chemical WMD stockpiles
Iraq has the capacity to deploy WMD within 45 minutes of an order
Iraq has “sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa”
All claims subsequently demonstrated to be false
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/September_Dossier

8. Gordon Brown, 2005, called
for a “Marshall Plan” for the
world’s poor
$2.3 trillion spent on aid over
last 50 years
5 million child malaria deaths
annually; 12 cents each would
prevent them
July 16, 2005, 9 million
copies of sixth Harry Potter
book delivered to
consumers on the same day
No shortages
‘Planners’ vs. ‘searchers’

10. Benefits of scientific literacy
Benefits to individuals
Better personal decision-making
Less susceptible to bogus products/services
Benefits to civic governance
Discerning, critically engaged voters
More rigorous challenging of social norms
Benefits to the national economy
Discerning, critically engaged consumers
Benefits to knowledge-makers
‘Buy-in’ from stakeholders

11. Carl Sagan (1934-1996)
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” (1980)

12. Conclusion:
Psychology, Science, and
Pseudoscience

13. Conclusion:
Why psychologists should care
about pseudoscience
Pseudoscience exists in
a psychological context
Ethical prerogatives demand
scepticism from psychologists
Psychologists hold influence
over public opinion

14. Extracts from the Psychological Society of Ireland’s
Code of Professional Ethics
“Psychologists are scientist-practitioners—that is, their professional
practice is grounded in a body of scientific knowledge” (Preamble)
“The authority of psychologists derives from the scientific methods of
investigation on which their knowledge is based” (Preamble)
Psychologists must “participate in and contribute to continuing education and
their own and colleagues’ professional and scientific growth” (Sect. 2.4.2)
“Psychologists shall be aware of their professional and scientific
responsibilities to clients, to the community, and to the society in which they
work and live” (Sect. 3.0)
Psychologists must “ensure that they maintain the highest standards of
scientific integrity in their research” (Sect. 3.2.2)
Psychologists must “facilitate the professional and scientific development
of those whose work they supervise” (Sect. 3.5.2)
Psychologists must “clearly differentiate facts, opinions, theories,
hypotheses, and ideas” (Sect. 4.2.5)

15. PS409
Psychology, Science,
& Pseudoscience
Dr Brian Hughes
School of Psychology
brian.hughes@nuigalway.ie @b_m_hughes