"Follow those who seek the truth, run from those who claim to have found it." -Old Adage

"If some good evidence for life after death were announced, I'd be eager to examine it; but it would have to be real scientific data, not mere anecdote.... Better the hard truth, I say, than the comforting fantasy."
-Carl Sagan (The Demon-Haunted World, page 204)



"Crap Detection 101" by Howard Rheingold
"The Essential Skill of Crap Detecting" By Alan Shapiro
"The CRAP Test" by Tony Karrer
How to fudge statistics to agree with you
Why We Need Science: “I saw it with my own eyes” Is Not Enough by Harriet Hall
The Skeptic's Toolbox
"The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational" by George Dvorsky
"The Woo Translator"
How To Generate Scientific Controversy
How To Monetize Scientific Controversy
"On the Origin of Superstitions" By Jesse Galef
"Summary dismissal"
"Uncertainty in Science: It’s a Feature, Not a Bug" by Julia Galef
"Science is not a democracy: when the wisdom of crowds isn't wise" by Jessica Palmer
"Provably Nonsense, Part II" by Julia Galef
"5 Food Package Claims That Deserve a Double Take" By Katherine Hobson
"Half-baked Heuristics" by Julia Galef
"The Flake Equation" by Steven Novella
"Hypnotized by Charisma" by Steven Novella
"Knowledge versus certainty in skepticism, medicine, and science" by Orac
"The business of denial"
Rationally Speaking episode 9 - "When Smart People Endorse Pseudoscience"
"Are one person's iconoclastic views another person's denialism?" by Orac
Point of Inquiry podcast - "Michael Specter - The Menace of Denialism"
"What does Jukt Micronics teach us about fact-checking?" by Michael Rosch
"Lying Liars and their Lying Lies" by Mark Crislip
"Barriers to the Acceptance of Science" by Steven Novella
"Exploiting psychology in law and advertising." By William Saletan
"Superstitions – Not All Bad? by Steven Novella
"Bullshit and the Art of Crap-Detection" by Neil Postman
"Are We Truly This Susceptible?"
"How facts backfire" By Joe Keohane
"Reliability of Health Information on the Web" by Steven Novella
New York Times - "Numberplay: Rare Coincidences Are Very Common!" By PRADEEP MUTALIK
"Newcomb’s Paradox: An Argument for Irrationality" By Julia Galef
"Why We Must Always Be Skeptical" by Greta Christina
Rationally Speaking podcast episode 16 - Deferring to Experts
"Content Spotlight - Optical Illusions"
"The Nature of Consensus" by Steven Novella
"How Gullible Are You?" by Steven Novella
"Body Snatchers, Phantom Limbs, and Alien Hands" by Steven Novella
"How Smiles Might Beat Poker Faces" y Jesse Galef
"5 Shocking Ways You Overestimate Yourself" By Kathy Benjamin
"5 Unexpected Downsides of High Intelligence" (#2) By Eddie Rodriguez
‘Heads I Win, Tails You Lose’: How Parapsychologists Nullify Null Results by Richard Wiseman
Wired - "Risk, Probability and How Brains Are Easily Misled" By Ars Technica
"6 Ways to Get Anyone to Believe a Clearly Fake News Story"
"Defending the Null Hypothesis" by Brian Dunning
Forbes - "10 Questions To Distinguish Real From Fake Science" by Emily Willingham
"You might hold the right beliefs for the wrong reasons" by ESTHER INGLIS-ARKELL
"Inconvenient Truth-Tellers" By Scott Sleek
"How pseudoscience tries to fool you"
"The Benjamin Franklin Effect: The Surprising Psychology of How to Handle Haters" by Maria Popova
"The Secret To Winning An Argument Is Ridiculously Simple" by DRAKE BAER
"Ideology is the Problem" by Steven Novella

Book - "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion" by Robert B. Cialdini



Logical Fallacies:


logicalfallacies.info
More on logical fallacies
Taxonomy of Logical Fallacies
"Faulty logic: False Dichotomy" By Barry Leiba
"5 Ways 'Common Sense' Lies To You Everyday" By Geoff Shakespeare
"Faulty logic: Appeal to Authority" By Barry Leiba
LA Times - "Childhood vaccines, autism and the dangers of group think" By JAMES RAINEY
"Faulty logic: Argument ad hominem" By Barry Leiba
"The Ultimate Argument from Authority" By Steven Novella
"Faulty logic: Appeal to Popularity" By Barry Leiba
"6 Logical Fallacies That Cost You Money Every Day" By Dan Seitz
The "God Of The Gaps" Argument
Argument from Contingency
"The Caveman Fallacy"
"Evidence in Medicine: Correlation and Causation" by Steven Novella
"Causation and Hill’s Criteria" by Mark Crislip
"Want to Help Save 34 Billion a Year in Health Care Costs? Be a Skeptic" By David Brenders, Ph.D.
"Marketing Psychology" by Steven Novella
"Faulty logic: Post hoc, ergo propter hoc" By Barry Leiba
"The delicate issue of the burden of proof" by Massimo Pigliucci
"Martin Gardner’s Signs of a Crank" by Brian Dunning
"Beware the Nobel Laureate Argument from Authority" By Steven Novella
"I Was a Skeptic Too Until I Tried…" by Brian Dunning
"A Post-Modernist Response to Science-Based Medicine" by Steven Novella
"The Context of Anecdotes and Anomalies" by Steven Novella
"I Can Fly" by Steven Novella
"Cognitive Biases and Handedness" by Steven Novella
"6 Real World Jedi Mind Tricks Salesmen Are Using On You" By Kathy Benjamin
"Science: How To Fake It"
"The danger of appealing stories: anecdata, expectations, and skepticism"
RationalWiki - "Argumentum ad verecundiam"
"Juicy Post-Hoc Reasoning" by Steven Novella
"The Survivorship Bias convinces people that psychics are real" by ESTHER INGLIS-ARKELL
"These Hilarious Charts Will Show You Exactly Why Correlation Doesn't Mean Causation" by DINA SPECTOR
"The 12 cognitive biases that prevent you from being rational" by George Dvorsky
"8 Logical Fallacies That Fuel Anti-Science Sentiments" by George Dvorsky

Game Theory:
Wikipedia - "Nash equilibrium"
Wikipedia - "Prisoner's dilemma"

Word Play and Reasoning:


Scientific American - "How Anecdotal Evidence Can Undermine Scientific Results" by Michael Shermer
Anomaly Hunting
"Cranks, quacks, and peer review" by David Gorski
"The Huffington Post’s War On Science" by Steven Novella
“There must be a reason,” or how we support our own false beliefs by David Gorski
"Have You Seen This Clown" by Steven Novella
"Are Atheists Open-Minded?" by Greta Christina
"More Anti-Science at the Huff Po" by Steven Novella

Science-Based Medicine 101:
"Science-Based Medicine 101: How To Establish A Source’s Credibility" by Val Jones
"Science-Based Medicine 101: Reproducibility" by Val Jones

Scientific Consensus:
"Science-based medicine, skepticism, and the scientific consensus" by David Gorski
"The best ten minute summing up of a scientific consensus I've seen in a long time" by Orac

Brian Dunning - Here Be Dragons: An Introduction To Critical Thinking:


Michael Shermer - The Baloney Detection Kit:


Michael Shermer - Why People Believe Weird Things:


Michael Shermer - The Believing Brain:


The Brian Lehrer Show - "How to Tell Science from Bunk" (interview with Massimo Pigliucci)

Jamy Ian Swiss at Gel 2009:

Jamy Ian Swiss at Gel 2009 from Gel Conference on Vimeo.

World Science Festival - The Illusion of Certainty: Risk, Probability, and Chance:


How the Media Screws Up Science:


TV tricks of the trade -- Quotes and cutaways:


Why eyewitness testimony is a weak form of evidence here and here
“The Martian Panic Sixty Years Later: What Have We Learned?” by Robert E. Bartholomew
“Two Mass Delusions in New England” by Robert E. Bartholomew
"What America’s greatest hoax has to teach us about memory" By Michael Rosch
"When testimonials are used in medical advertising" by Orac
"The Wooliness of Memory" by Daniel Loxton
"Exploiting psychology in law and advertising." By William Saletan
"Change Blindness" By Steven Novella
"5 Mind Blowing Ways Your Memory Plays Tricks On You" By Matt Moore
"More Evidence Our Memory Stinks" By Steven Novella
Wired - "Ads Implant False Memories" By Jonah Lehrer
"Implanting False Memory" By Steven Novella
"How Friends Ruin Memory: The Social Conformity Effect" By Jonah Lehrer
"The False Memory Trap: How Our Brains Are Constantly Distorting The Past" By Chris Weller

Richard Wiseman - colour changing card trick:


Monkey Business Illusion:

'Invisible Gorilla' Test Shows How Little We Notice By Charles Q. Choi

Playing Mind Games:


Gullible is not in the Dictionary:


Dateline - "What Were You Thinking?"
Rationally Speaking podcast - "Fluffy Thinking”

Michael Shermer: The pattern behind self-deception:


Scientific American - Science Meets Magic:


COMMON TACTICS USED BY CONSPIRACY THEORISTS, PSEUDOSCIENTISTS, PARANORMALISTS & CRANKS OF ALL KINDS:

The “science was wrong before” Gambit, Galileo Gambit & other anti-intellectualism:
"While Galileo was a rebel, not all rebels are Galileo."
-Norman Levitt
The appeal to “science was wrong before”
"Science has been wrong before" by John Jackson
"The Galileo Gambit" by Orac
"Anti-vaccinationists have their own award, called surprisingly enough (not really) The Galileo Award by anti-vaccinationists
"Andrew Wakefield: The Galileo Gambit writ large in The Observer" by Orac

The Arrogance of Ignorance Gambit:
"The Arrogance of Ignorance"

"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool."
-Richard P. Feynman
The Annecdotal Evidence trumps Carefully Controlled Studies Gambit:
Why We Need Science: “I saw it with my own eyes” Is Not Enough by Harriet Hall

The Science is Religion Gambit:
"Science is Just Another Religion!"
"Is Science Just Another Religion?"
"Crank magnetism strikes again" by Orac

The Teach The Controversy (aka Tell Both Sides aka Manufactroversy) Gambit :
Wikipedia - "Teach The Controversy"
"The Manufactured Doubt Industry and the Hacked Email Controversy" by Jeff Masters
LA Times - "Teach The Controversy?" by Michael Shermer
"A Dose of Controversy": More like a dose of equivocation by Orac
"Run, don't walk, away from these Doctors” by Orac
Why do media report 'the other side' of scientific fact? by Haddayr Copley-Woods
Satirical "Teach The Controversey" t-shirts

HOW STATISTICS ARE MISUNDERSTOOD IN THE MEDIA AND SOCIETY:


Lesson on Slanted Surveys and Statistics
"The 6 Most Statistically Full of Shit Professions" by By Christina H
Wikipedia - "Monty Hall problem"
Test the Monty Hall Problem yourself here
"Statistics in Science" by Steven Novella

HOW THE MEDIA DISTORTS REALITY:
"Think Like A Journalist" by Michael Bugeja
"5 Things The Media Loves Pretending Are News" By Nick Coffin
"6 Subtle Ways The News Media Disguises Bullshit As Fact" By C. Coville
Why do media report 'the other side' of scientific fact? by Haddayr Copley-Woods
"This is a news website article about a scientific paper" by Martin Robbbins (satirical template of how the journalists botch science stories)

How To Think About Dubious Claims [10 Lecture Course]:


Penn & Teller exposing one of their own magic tricks on Muppets Tonight:


Martin Gardner: The Nature of Things

Dan Ariely - The Honest Truth About Dishonesty - TAM 2013:


TAM 2014 - Julia Galef - How to Change Your Mind:


More lessons in critical thinking:





A Practical Guide To Critical Thinking
"Teller Reveals His Secrets" by Teller

TEACHING CRITICAL THINKING TO CHILDREN:
A viable method for teaching critical thinking skills to small children here. and a video demonstration is here.
Also, UK high schools and colleges will be teaching "Anomalistic Psychology," which attempts to explain paranormal and related beliefs and ostensibly paranormal experiences in terms of known psychological and physical factors.
NY Times - "The Examined Life, Age 8" By ABBY GOODNOUGH
"The littlest skepchick"
Skeptical Resources for the Classroom
"Skepticism 101: A Call for Course Syllabuses from Those Teaching Skeptical Courses " by Michael Shermer

Critical Thinking in Education panel at Northeast Conference on Science and Skepticism 2012:


A.C.Grayling talks at the British Humanist Association's 2010 Annual General Meeting on children's education and the links between religion and education:


And the best source of all, Critical Thinking Education Group"

Also see videos from Parenting Beyond Belief

A short description of common denialist tactics framed around a discussion of Global Warming Denial

Even the very best skeptics can fall victim to logical fallacies. Here are various blogs written in response to flawed thinking by James Randi, the father of the modern skeptical movement.
"James Randi, global warming and the meaning of skepticism" By Massimo Pigliucci
"Say it ain't so, Randi!" by PZ Myers
"Randi responds" by PZ Myers
"Randi, skepticism, and global warming" by Phil Plait
"James Randi, anthropogenic global warming, and skepticism" by Orac
"James Randi, anthropogenic global warming, and skepticism, revisited one last time (I hope)" by Orac

And to learn about other popular myths, check out Snopes.com
Or FactCheck.org
Or PolitiFact.com
NY Times - "Debunkers of Fictions Sift the Net" By BRIAN STELTER


And here is an example of really, really POOR critical thinking.

©2007 Staks Studios