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Rather Than Just Debunking, Encourage People to Think

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Rather Than Just Debunking, Encourage People to Think Rather Than Just Debunking, Encourage People to Think The skeptical movement has an excellent opportunity to encourage better thinking skills. One way is to stimulate audiences to treat popular 'mysteries' as puzzles they can solve by asking the right questions. Al Seckel EADERS of the SKEPTICAL INQUIRER are justifiably concerned about several recent national surveys that indicate that among the R general population there is widespread ignorance about science and a growing belief in the pseudosciences (channeling, reincarnation, ESP, astrology, biorhythms, pyramidology, crystal power, UFOs, and so on). However, there is a problem that is much broader and more far-reaching than the fact that many people believe in unfounded ideas that in themselves really don't matter in the grand scheme of things. (After all, who really cares that Shirley MacLaine wears a crystal that she believes emits strange powers or that other people believe that the earth has been visited by extraterrestrials intent on capturing young women for sexual purposes?) The problem, as I see it, is that the widespread and growing belief in various pseudosciences is just one small indication that people are not evalu- ating information properly. And this does have serious consequences. 1 used to think that overpopulation, starvation, the demise of the rain forests and topsoil, the carbon-monoxide buildup, nuclear proliferation, and so on, were basic global problems, but it finally dawned on me that they were all merely consequences of the human thinking process, individually and collectively: how we think, how we build up belief systems, why we follow certain leaders, and how we see challenges and create institutions to meet them. People are constantly bombarded by the media, by sales representatives, and by their friends with information that is highly questionable. They are Al Seckel is a physicist in Pasadena and the executive director of the Southern California Skeptics. A somewhat different version of this article appears in Not Necessarily the New Age, edited by Robert Basil and recently published by Prometheus. 300 THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 13 asked to accept ideas that, after the smallest amount of probing, could be shown to be invalid. The promoters of such ideas have nothing to fear, because they know people have not learned to ask the proper questions. Such a credulous attitude stems in part from the fact that people are almost always told what to think or what not to think—by their churches, by their governments, by their schools, or by their parents. The emphasis has always been to teach someone what to think rather than how to think. Educational studies have documented the fact that critical-thinking skills are seriously declining among schoolchildren. And without criteria for distin- guishing science from nonscience and fact from fiction, teachers, too, can be caught in the trap of believing in and disseminating unsupported contentions. It is unfortunate, therefore, that most people are not learning the necessary skills needed to analyze the claims being made. Even skeptics are not immune. Some debunkings have been made when there was just not enough information available to come to a conclusion, much less a robust one. Even skeptics must be able to say "I don't know" and wait for the explanation of a "mystery" rather than providing answers that are wrong or embracing a "solution" unquestioningly simply because it comes from a well-known debunker. Now that the problem is stated, what can the skeptical movement do about it? Since the paranormal and the occult are of considerable interest to many people, skeptics have a marvelous opportunity to encourage better thinking skills by discussing various pseudo- and fringe-sciences in a particular way. The skeptical movement can be an extremely valuable social force if it puts the emphasis on teaching better reasoning skills rather than confining itself simply to debunking erroneous popular notions. Unfortunately, the opportunity to use the pseudosciences to teach reasoning skills is too often missed. For the most part, the refutations of pseudoscience that one finds available in the skeptical literature aim primarily at debunking a mystery or pseudo- science instead of attempting to develop necessary skills in the reader. In other words, the debunking of a mystery or pseudoscience is an end rather than a means. What does the skeptical movement accomplish by debunking the Bermuda Triangle, the false visions of a tabloid psychic, or the latest UFO sighting? Possibly not much in the long-range view. Although a skeptic may have presented the solution to one mystery, he or she rarely provides a means for the reader or the listener to figure out the next one—and there will always be a next one: a new triangle will appear off some country's coast, another psychic will make predictions, and reports about UFOs will continue to appear in the media and hence in people's imaginations. But although the places, dates, and names change from mystery to mystery, the same faulty reasoning patterns that led people to believe that something paranormal was taking place always reoccur. (No doubt this underlying pattern is what makes so many skeptical scientists appear to be closed minded. In fact, scientists are often just bored; they have seen the same mistakes made many times before.) Spring 1989 301 Perhaps the skeptics have directed their efforts to too many effects rather than to one of the main underlying causes of credulity. CSICOP and some of the local skeptical groups have done a wonderful job publicly disseminating rational and scientific alternative explanations for various popular pseudo- mysteries and other occult claims. However, I would like to see some other methods used as well. The time has come to discuss various pseudosciences in a fashion that is aimed, first, at helping people develop necessary reasoning skills and, second, at demonstrating how to recognize some of the techniques that are used to distort the thinking process. How to Ask Questions One of the most effective ways to deal with extraordinary claims is by learning how to ask the right questions. This enables one to separate the essentials from the nonessentials and get right to the heart of the matter. For example, what is the claim being made? Are there alternative explanations? How can you test the various hypotheses offered? Have you been told the full story? And so on. How then does one use the pseudosciences to teach reasoning skills? One approach might be the following: Treat paranormal "mysteries" as fun and as interesting puzzles to be solved by your audience through proper questioning and probing. This process will allow them to reach the correct conclusion themselves with an accompanying "Aha!" or an "Oh, I get it now!" reaction. The next time you are asked for or are presenting the solution to a paranormal mystery ask your audience what they think. Can they suggest any natural explanation or present an alternative possibility? How would they check out or test the various possibilities? The idea is to get your audience to compare the different explanations and then think of ways to test the various hypotheses. After all, before you can say that something is out of this world you must first make darn sure that it isn't in it! Make sure your audience has all the information, because you can make a mystery out of anything by leaving out half the facts. Encourage your audience, but give them as little help as possible. Once they have hit upon the correct solution you can support it with facts gleaned from the work of the debunkers who have already gone through this process. This approach, if properly executed, frequently produces an Aha! reaction from your audience. It gets them to actively participate; and, moreover, a participating audience is an attentive one. Most important, they have reached the conclusions themselves. Avoid Jargon Always give examples that people can relate to their everyday experience and avoid jargon. For example, in some explanations of the phenomenon of firewalking speakers from the skeptical movement would tell their audience 302 THE SKEPTICAL INQUIRER, Vol. 13 that moisture protects the firewalker's feet by means of the "Leydenfrost effect," giving the example of how water droplets will skip around on a hot skillet. First of all, there are always simpler words. Secondly, in this example a lay audience might wonder how water dancing around on a hot skillet relates to protecting a firewalker's feet from injury. Instead, the speaker should have avoided the "Leydenfrost" term altogether and simply stated that evaporating water vapor provides protection from heat. After all, how do you test a hot iron? Most people would be able to relate this to their own experience and get an "Aha!" reaction. Don't Deny Experiences There is an even more important point that needs to be stressed. Many of the so-called paranormal claims (out-of-body experiences, walking across hot coals, the fortune-teller's ability to perform "readings") are genuine experi- ences. People do have out-of-body experiences, others can walk across hot coals, and fortune-tellers and astrologers can sometimes reveal what appear to be specific insights into their clients personalities. And many people have had some sort of "paranormal" experience they cannot readily explain. It does not help the skeptic's case to deny an experience that a person genuinely believes he or she had. It just sets up the skeptic as closed-minded. Most people, however, will allow you to help them figure out alternative explana- tions for their genuine experiences, providing you are not confrontational or smug. So next time don't tell your audience it doesn't work or didn't happen, just ask them if there could possibly be an alternative explanation.
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