CSUEBM Why People Are Prone to Believing in Pseudoscience Essay 1) Using what you’ve learned in class this week, discuss why you believe people are prone t

CSUEBM Why People Are Prone to Believing in Pseudoscience Essay 1) Using what you’ve learned in class this week, discuss why you believe people are prone to believing in pseudoscience. Use one or two examples that you’ve witnessed or read about to explain your answer.2) Consider the various pseudoscientific ideas you may have seen in the movies or on TV. What are these ideas appealing to in the human mind? Why do they seem believable even when they are not factual? Draw on your anthropology knowledge to answer the questions! FRAUD! PSEUDOSCIENCE, FOSSILS,
AND ARCHAEOLOGY
THE PERSISTENCE OF FRAUD, HOAXES, AND
PSEUDOSCIENCE
• Science is not about proving things
true, but proving them false
• For an idea to be accepted in the
scientific community, it has to
withstand critical evaluation and
peer-review process
• Scientists must be skeptical until the
hypothesis or claim has been tested
repeatedly (past the point of human
error)
PSEUDOSCIENCE DEFINED
• The practice of making claims that appear to be
scientific, but do not actually follow the scientific
method of testability and falsification of hypotheses
• How does it work?
• Trying to give (or sell) us answers
• Attempting to appeal to our sense of mystery
• Pseudoscientific claims all fail the criteria of science
• Testability
• Falsifiability
• Peer review
THE “BALONEY
DETECTION KIT”
• Carl Sagan developed the
term
• Most of us have this and use
it daily when we are skeptical
of lies, half-truths, and
exaggerations
• Our filters fail when
promised comfort, help with
uncertainty, or faced with
wonder
SCIENCE VS.
PSEUDOSCIENCE
• “An extraordinary claim requires
extraordinary proof” (Marcello
Truzzi)
• Hundreds of routine discoveries
made every day and many new
species discovered every year
• Pseudoscientists make
revolutionary pronouncements,
argue forcefully, and don’t
provide evidence
BURDEN OF PROOF
• Extraordinary claims require a larger burden of
proof
• Example: evolution by means of natural selection
(burden of proof is now back with creationists)
• “The great tragedy of Science – the slaying of a
beautiful hypothesis by an ugly fact.” (Thomas
Henry Huxley)
BUT…COULD BIGFOOT EXIST?
• Cryptozoology = the search for and study of animals whose
existence or survival is disputed or unsubstantiated
• History of local knowledge long before scientific “discovery”
GIGANTOPITHECUS
• Extinct genus of ape that lived
in what is now China, India, and
Vietnam
• Few fossils remain
• Bigfoot believers cannot back
up claims (where are the
bones?)
• Example of how anthropology is
used to bolster pseudoscientific
claims
Gigantopithecus at the San Diego Museum of Man
PILTDOWN MAN
• Said to be a previously unknown early
human – the missing link?
• Parts of a cranium and mandible which
were similar to a small brained human
with a jaw similar to a young chimp
Britain’s first “prehistoric” remains (found in 1908 – 1912)
Influenced theories of evolution for years
WHAT REALLY HAPPENED:
Jaw of orangutan attached to human cranium (a few hundred years old) with filed teeth and stained
bones
DID A SCIENTIST FAKE THE
FOSSIL?
• Original suspect: Charles Dawson
(who discovered the fossil)
• Good evidence for fraud
committed by anatomist Arthur
Keith
ANALYSES HAVE SHOWN:
– DNA proved the teeth found at two different Piltdown
sites were from the same animal
– 3D imaging showed that many bones and one tooth
were filled with Piltdown gravel
– Holes in the skull filled with dental putty (also used to
re-set teeth in the jaw and to reconstruct a tooth)
– Teeth were removed and filed before being replaced
in jaw
• Provided a way to justify his
interpretation of human evolution
• e.g. humans evolved large brains while
retaining ape-like jaws
• Did he think he was anticipating what
would eventually be known from the
fossil record?
Eoanthropus
dawsoni (Dawson’s
Dawn Man)
WHY DID PEOPLE BELIEVE IN PILTDOWN
MAN?
• Satisfied scientific belief
at the time
• Nationalism and cultural
prejudice?
• Scientists were not
allowed much access to
the fossil
CALAVERAS SKULL
• 1866, California: skull discovered by
miners 130 feet below surface
• Geologist claimed the skull was evidence
of co-existence of humans, mastodons,
and elephants (which conveniently fit his
hypothesis published the year before)
• Very widely discredited, but used as an
example of the failure of scientists by
creationists
Calaveras skull
CRYSTAL SKULLS
• Allegedly hand carved by pre-Columbian
Mesoamericans
• Scientific red flags:
• specimens rarely made available for scientists
to study
• no analog in Mesoamerican ethnohistorical
accounts
• no skulls reported in archaeological
excavations
Crystal skull at British Museum
ANALYSES OF THE CRYSTAL
SKULLS
• Questions: Construction?
Origin of material?
Archaeological or
ethnohistoric information?
• Microscopic analysis shows
the skulls are made by
modern tools
• British Museum skull is
composed of quartz
sourced from Brazil (too far
for ancient trade networks)
In 1992, a large white
quartz skull sent
anonymously to
Smithsonian
Same dealer owned
the British Museum
skull (and three other
rock crystal skulls)
CRYSTAL SKULL OF
LUBAANTUN
• Found in Belize in 1924
• Allegedly used by a
Maya high priest to
invite death
• Exhibited for personal
profit – another red
flag!
GIANTS
• Giants reported all over the world – Wisconsin
giants, Cardiff giant, etc.
• Reasons for so many giant reports?
THE MISSISSIPPI MUMMY
• Mummy allegedly from Egypt displayed at
Mississippi Department of Archives and
History
• But, there were shreds of newspaper peeling
from the back of the mummy?
• Why would people believe for over 40 years?
• United the community
• Distinguished the community
• Cultural tie to Egypt
A WEREWOLF IN MACEDONIA
• “Werewolf skull” from Macedonia
• Scientific red flag –no skeletal
evidence ever found
• More scientific answer: a wolf with
Paget’s disease
• Good example of Occam’s razor
(Among competing hypotheses,
the one with the fewest
assumptions should be selected)
DO SCIENTISTS COMMIT FRAUD?
• YES! But, thankfully, rarely…
• Shinichi Fujimura
• faked Stone Age finds that were used as proof
of ancient dwellings that pre-dated Japan’s
oldest residential structures
• He reported that he “fell victim to temptation”
in his quest to find the oldest human
settlement and faked his finds
Fujimura captured by a
reporter as he planted fake
artifacts

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