The Skeptic. Published on Science Based Medicine (18th August 2009)Harriet Hall examines the reliability and explanatory power of anecdotal reports, and biases in human perception in her article Why We Need Science: “I saw it with my own eyes” Is Not Enough I recently wrote an article for a community newspaper attempting to explain to scientifically naive readers why testimonial “evidence” is unreliable; unfortunately, they decided not to print it. I considered using it here, but I thought it was too elementary for this audience. I have changed my mind and I am offering it below (with apologies to the majority of our readers), because it seems a few of our readers still don’t “get” why we have to use rigorous science to evaluate claims.
People can be fooled, folks. All people. That includes me and it includes you. The first principle is that you must not fool yourself–and you are the easiest person to fool. Science is the only way to correct for our errors of perception and of attribution. B4TM (aka BEFORE THE MASK: THE RETURN OF LESLIE VERNON) by BeforeTheMask. Song Detective Blog – All Songs from Fright Night. Phoenix Fly. WTF NEWS | Your Daily Source of Weird News. Maldito Simio. The Odd Luminary. Oddity Central - Weird Places, Odd Events, Bizarre News, Strange People and A Lot More.