SPHR 2102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Illusory Correlation, Cognitive Bias, Falsifiability
3 Jan 2018
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Document Summary
Illusory correlation: cognitive bias that occurs when we focus on two events that stand out and occur together. Expert opinion is often sought when there is insufficient empirical evidence to judge a course of action. Ex: internet, news media, books, government officials. Many accept statements based on faith in the authority. Scientific approach rejects the notion of authority and requires more evidence before conclusions can be drawn. Falsifiability: testable scientific ideas that can be falsified by data. Peer review: process of evaluation of the research before it is published. A real scientific theory tells you what observations are necessary to falsify it in a journal. Any event, situation, behavior or individual characteristic that varies. Increase in one variable results in increase in another. Increase in one variable results in decrease another. Increase in one variable results in systematic increase and decrease in another. Includes u shaped and inverted u shaped curves.
