![\"150602Nosek\"](\"http:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/01\/150602Nosek.jpg\")
June 2, 2015<\/p>\nJune 2, 2015<\/p>\n
\u201cPsychologist\u00a0Brian Nosek<\/a>\u00a0of the University of Virginia says that the most common and problematic bias in science is \u2018motivated reasoning\u2019: We interpret observations to fit a particular idea.<\/p>\n \u201cPsychologists have shown that \u2018most of our reasoning is in fact rationalization,\u2019 he says. In other words, we have already made the decision about what to do or to think, and our \u2018explanation\u2019 of our reasoning is really a justification for doing what we wanted to do \u2013 or to believe \u2013 anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n \u2013 From \u201c<\/em>The Trouble With Scientists<\/em><\/a>: How one psychologist is tackling human biases in science\u201d by Philip Ball at Nautilus (May 14)<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cMotivated reasoning\u201d ran amok during the \u201csatanic ritual abuse\u201d day-care panic, resulting in journal articles such as\u00a0\u201cStress Responses of Children to Sexual Abuse and Ritualistic Abuse in Day Care Centers<\/a>\u201d and \u201cSatanic Ritual Abuse: A Cause of Multiple Personality Disorder<\/a>\u201d \u2013 and legitimizing testimony by the prosecution\u2019s expert witnesses.<\/p>\n Not surprisingly, Dr. Nosek has found examples of \u201cmotivated reasoning\u201d in claims of recovered memory.<\/p>\n \u201cIn my intro psych course,\u201d he told me, \u201cI have one lecture that is centered around Lawrence Wright’s fascinating \u2018Remembering Satan<\/a>\u2019….\u201d (about a\u00a01988 case<\/a>\u00a0in Olympia, Wash.,\u00a0involving not only SRA allegations but also false confession).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" June 2, 2015 \u201cPsychologist\u00a0Brian Nosek\u00a0of the University of Virginia says that the most common and problematic bias in science is \u2018motivated reasoning\u2019: We interpret observations to fit a particular idea. \u201cPsychologists have shown that \u2018most of our reasoning is in fact rationalization,\u2019 he says. In other words, we have already made the decision about what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1439","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blog"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1439"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2359,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1439\/revisions\/2359"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1439"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1439"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.littlerascalsdaycarecase.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1439"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}