Evidence map›Paper›PMID 30481220›Full record

ArticlePloS one2018

Fake science: The impact of pseudo-psychological demonstrations on people's beliefs in psychological principles.

Yuxuan Lan, Christine Mohr, Xiaomeng Hu, Gustav Kuhn

Abstract read
In one paragraph

Article in PloS one, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 2 papers.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
2citing papers in PubMed
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.

3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

2 citing papers in PubMed.

  1. Article
  2. Article
4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

4 authors.

Yuxuan LanDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Christine MohrDepartment of Psychology, Lausanne University, Lausanne, Switzerland.
Xiaomeng HuDepartment of Psychology, School of Social Sciences, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.ORCID 0000-0002-0915-4271
Gustav KuhnDepartment of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London, London, United Kingdom.ORCID 0000-0003-2888-914X

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Magicians use deception to create effects that allow us to experience the impossible. More recently, magicians have started to contextualize these tricks in psychological demonstrations. We investigated whether witnessing a magic demonstration alters people's beliefs in these pseudo-psychological principles. In the classroom, a magician claimed to use psychological skills to read a volunteer's thoughts. After this demonstration, participants reported higher beliefs that an individual can 1) read a person's mind by evaluating micro expressions, psychological profiles and muscle activities, and 2) effectively prime a person's behaviour through subtle suggestions. Whether he was presented as a magician or psychologist did not influence people's beliefs about how the demonstration was achieved, nor did it influence their beliefs in pseudo-psychological principles. Our results demonstrate that pseudo-psychological demonstrations can have a significant impact on perpetuating false beliefs in scientific principles and raise important questions about the wider impact of scientific misinformation.

Indexed as

PsychologyScienceAdolescentFemaleHumansIllusionsMagicMalePsychological TheoryVisual PerceptionYoung Adult

Identifiers

PMID30481220
PMCPMC6258475

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

Registered trials

None linked

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.