You make Pearson cry

Three examples of misinterpreting correlations.

Superstitions evolved to help us survive

New Scientist

And the same logic applies to heuristics, such as representativeness.

Monty Hall Problem

The Monty Hall Problem, named after the host of the long-running game show "Let’s Make a Deal," is a statistical puzzle that seems counterintuitive. A recurring deal on the show featured contestants choosing one of three closed doors, with a big prize behind one of them and something else, like a goat, behind each of the others.

NY Times Demo

Stress and Illness

As I always tell my students, stress is really, really bad. It exacerbates a lot of psychological and physical problems. Unfortunately, most students assume I mean that it causes these problems.

Stress Test
By PEGGY ORENSTEIN
Published: June 29, 2008
Why Americans want to believe that our mental states can control our physical maladies.
NY Times

Aromatherapy

Putting pseudoscience claims to the test of controlled research.

Nostrums: Aromatherapy Rarely Stands Up to Testing
By ERIC NAGOURNEY
Published: March 11, 2008
When researchers set out to see if they could prove any of the claims about aromatherapy in the lab, most did not pan out.

One problem tho, the co-author's name: William B. Malarkey

Scientists "see" ghosts

An article about the how unreal our normal perceptual processes are.

The skinny on Miss Cleo

Miss Cleo, the fake-Jamaican, psychic is back!

Now she's doing commercials for FUSE tv playing on her past notoriety. She also has a psychic website.

People just don't learn.

Here's a CourtTV article on the downfall of the 90's Miss Cleo.

And here's the script for a "live tarot reading."

Debunking The Commercial Press and Why Scientists Hate to Talk to the Media

The popular press ran a story over the weekend about the eventual split into two species of the human race. The sources cited were the preeminent London School of Economics and the work of Professor Oliver Curry. The story published as scientific fact is rebuked by Dr. Curry and this article explains how it all happened.

Watson, Race and IQ

The Times Online has a thoughtful response to the Watson debacle.

Belief in reincarnation tied to memory errors

People who believe they have lived past lives as, say, Indian princesses or battlefield commanders are more likely to make certain types of memory errors, according to a new study.
The propensity to make these mistakes could, in part, explain why people cling to implausible reincarnation claims in the first place.