Introduction-
I went to a pre-college program at Brown University over the summer, and the course I took explored the hazy line between pseudoscience and science. In today’s world, pseudoscientific claims and misinformation are entangled in real science and medicine. It is crucial to differentiate between nonscience and science, but it can be extremely difficult to do so since pseudoscience disguises itself as real science very convincingly. The class equips students with essential critical thinking that helps to distinguish between fake and valid information. This blog will use specific benefits of using critical thinking to both individuals and society.
Preventing the spread of false information
Misinformation spreads easily now with the internet and social medias. Most people do not actively try to critique the media they consume, and many claims made on the internet present themselves very officially, making them easy to believe. If more people became educated in skeptical thinking and practiced it actively when exploring the internet, pseudoscientific claims and misinformation could be recognized quickly and disproved. It is important to prevent the spread of nonscience because it can lead to health misinformation that impacts both individual and general health since people can make bad decisions that stem from conspiracies.
Protecting individuals’ well beings
By preventing the spread of false information, we can lower the amount of people who practice pseudoscience. Many pseudosciences promote alternative treatments with no evidence of them actually working. The reality is that many alternative medicines have possibly dangerous effects on people who use the treatments. When making a choice for a treatment, people try to choose one with the least possible side effects and highest success rate. Pseudoscientific claims with anecdotal evidence, incomplete research, or other logical fallacies are misleading, and many have not been falsified. On the surface they seem to have a high success rate and have no listed negative effects, but it is important to remember that testimonies and anecdotes do not count for any real evidence since they are subjective. Also, just because a claim has not been proved wrong, it does not have to be 100% real. Education on distinguishing between pseudoscientific treatments and real medicine could prevent bad choices. Effects of belief in pseudoscientific treatments range from using only placebo effects to treat illnesses to negative opportunity cost to even hurting an individual further than the illness itself.
Example
Homeopathy is a good example of why critical thinking is important since it is very popular, and up until 2018 there was a government funded hospital for it in England. Practitioners knew that there was no actual active ingredient in homeopathic treatments, but they believed in its powers and attributed them to something more supernatural than just the placebo effect. It is even used by the English royal family. Homeopathy has no direct negative effects since you would really only be drinking water as a treatment, but it also has no direct positive effect. Placebo effect is very real and can help cure people, but there are many instances where it is not enough. This could create a negative opportunity cost for those who chose homeopathy over regular medical treatment and were not healed by it. In England’s case, it also took up a piece of government funding that could have been used to improve actual science and treat disease more reliably.
Conclusion-
The ability to use critical thinking to distinguish pseudoscience from science is essential in order to prevent the spread of misinformation that could lead to bad decisions that harm people.