Causal illusion as a cognitive basis of pseudoscientific beliefs
[eng] The prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs in society has notable repercussions on critical domains such as health and education. Causal illusions have been proposed as a potential cognitive bias underlying the formation and perpetuation of such beliefs. This doctoral thesis aims to delve into...
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| Tipo de recurso: | tesis doctoral |
| Estado: | Versión publicada |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2024 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | CBUC, CESCA |
| Repositorio: | TDR. Tesis Doctorales en Red |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:www.tdx.cat:10803/694047 |
| Acceso en línea: | http://hdl.handle.net/10803/694047 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Psicologia experimental Psicología experimental Experimental psychology Cognició Cognición Cognition Al·lucinacions i il·lusions Alucinaciones e ilusiones Hallucinations and illusions Pseudociència Pseudociencia Pseudoscience Ciències de la Salut 159.9 |
| Sumario: | [eng] The prevalence of pseudoscientific beliefs in society has notable repercussions on critical domains such as health and education. Causal illusions have been proposed as a potential cognitive bias underlying the formation and perpetuation of such beliefs. This doctoral thesis aims to delve into the relationship between causal illusion and the endorsement of pseudoscientific beliefs, through different studies. The first one focuses on the development of a tool to measure pseudoscience belief endorsement (Pseudoscience Endorsement Scale, PES) and testing its possible association with causal judgment scores obtained in a passive (i.e., null) contingency detection task, in which participants observed a series of medical records indicating whether or not the patient took a certain infusion and whether or not he or she was subsequently cured of a headache. The results showed that participants who scored higher on the PES exhibited stronger causal illusions on the contingency detection task. In a second study, volunteers engaged in active contingency learning tasks in which they could manipulate the presence or absence of a potential cause to explore its impact on the outcome, thus reflecting not only information interpretation, but also search strategies. The findings consistently demonstrated that individuals with stronger pseudoscientific beliefs exhibited heightened causal illusions, irrespective of differential search strategies. Finally, a third study was conducted in order to explore other cognitive and sociodemographic correlates of pseudoscientific beliefs. The results indicated that the level of endorsement of pseudoscience showed positive correlations with other unwarranted beliefs, such as paranormal and conspiracist beliefs and science denialism, and negative correlations with scientific knowledge, cognitive reflection scores, and bullshit sensitivity, a measure that represents the ability to differentiate between legitimate motivational statements and profound-sounding but devoid of meaning sentences. Taken together, these results suggest a robust link between pseudoscientific beliefs and the development of causal illusions, which arises regardless of whether those with higher pseudoscientific beliefs employ different information search strategies. Therefore, our research emphasizes the complex interaction between cognitive biases and belief systems, offering insights into possible approaches aimed at reducing the impact of pseudoscientific beliefs within society. |
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