Comments on: How bad neuroscience can mislead us

By: fakefighter

fakefighter — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:13:00 +0000

That’s a statement, not an argument that is trying to lead you to a conclusion. If you can’t tell why you can’t simply conclude that maths and TV activating the same areas doesn’t necessarily mean watching TV leads to better math skills, then the problem is not with the study.

By: fakefighter

fakefighter — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 14:11:00 +0000

The point is that the science-y terms and images don’t add new evidence to the statements, they just add flowery language to a logically circular or weak argument. For instance, to state that, because watching television stimulating areas used in maths, television must improve math skills is logically unsound. Hence why the audience of neuroscientists laughed in that bit. Regardless of whether you have a pie chart or pictures of a brain – both represent the same information.

By: Rolf Smeds

Rolf Smeds — Wed, 29 Aug 2012 07:43:00 +0000

So, if we add the neurosciene bits in the Baskerville typeface, we get something almost impossible NOT to believe! http://boingboing.net/2012/08/09/errol-morris-quiz-about-kill.html

By: Ernest Hebert

Ernest Hebert — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 20:38:00 +0000

Yes, I’ve seen the hemispheric–or was it hemorrhoidic–scans that prove it

By: SomeGuyNamedMark

SomeGuyNamedMark — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:57:00 +0000

Or that making you take off your belt will prevent bad things from happening on a plane ever again

By: KWillets

KWillets — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:36:00 +0000

This is my frontal lobe response to this article:

________/_______

By: Lobster

Lobster — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:33:00 +0000

I’m getting hungry.

By: Mark Temporis

Mark Temporis — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:21:00 +0000

People actually believe these in a way that science fictional ‘truthy’ explanations are not. I mean, people will use such explanations in their daily lives, while I doubt even the most dim of comics fans actually tried exposing themselves to radiation in hope of developing super powers.

(Actually…mom didn’t let me try it.)

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 19:15:00 +0000

Yeah, it’s because of the frontal lobe circuitry involved.

By: Gerald Mander

Gerald Mander — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:48:00 +0000

I can’t trust an Oxford don who doesn’t know the plural of “phenomenon.”

By: Bruce Wright

Bruce Wright — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:34:00 +0000

Wait, is this a real study or just common sense? Aren’t people evaluating the information in light of the evidence (and it’s not their fault they’ve been lied to about the nature of the evidence)?

I mean, if I said “The Wall Street Journal just released a study that says that 40% of American Corporations will likely be bankrupt in the next three years,” probably more people would accept that number than if I didn’t source it. It’s not their fault I lied to them.

By: SamSam

SamSam — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:33:00 +0000

I couldn’t watch the video, and the bullet-points don’t address this:

Is she comparing the arguments with “neuroscience” evidence against similar explanations with non-neuroscience science evidence? Or just against arguments that have no evidence at all?

Naturally people are going to trust an argument that has neuroscience-based evidence over an argument that claims no evidence at all.

“Left handed people have bad manners.”

“Left-handed people have bad manners, brain-imaging research shows.”

The second argument cites some (made-up) evidence, so most people would probably be more inclined to tentatively trust it over the first. But would there be any statistical difference if people were told

“Left-handed people have bad manners, impulse-control analysis shows.”

I would love to see the actual statements used in the experiment.

By: EH

EH — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:28:00 +0000

The problem is our brains are wired to accept such arguments.

By: Trefunk

Trefunk — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:28:00 +0000

I don’t believe the presentation.

By: northierthanthou

northierthanthou — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:22:00 +0000

Sounds like visuals help people to accept truthyness, …heh.

By: Halloween_Jack

Halloween_Jack — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:20:00 +0000

A mild-mannered chemistry teacher undergoes a radical alteration in personality to become a cold-blooded drug lord after his bout with lung cancer. How does Dr. Jesse Pinkman of the Albuquerque Institute of Magnets & Shit explain it?

“NEUROSCIENCE BITCHES”

By: KWillets

KWillets — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:20:00 +0000

There’s always some effort to dress up opinions as scientific facts. Brain scans of Boingboing editors have proved it.

By: latelatelateshow

latelatelateshow — Tue, 28 Aug 2012 18:10:00 +0000

There’s also the common technique of incessantly repeating a false scientific “truth” until the masses accept it as fact, such as the idea that HUMANKIND and DINOSAURS co-existed together during the same stretch of Time – or that using SANITIZING WIPES before one enters a supermarket will rid one of germs and ward off swine flu