George Pell’s conviction has opened a rift in Australian society, with many people questioning the guilty verdict. Pell’s lawyer has said he will appeal. On what grounds could he do that?
When people know it’s a full moon, they tend to use it to explain all sorts of human behaviour.
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The ‘illumination hypothesis’ – suggests that criminals like enough light to ply their trade, but not so much as to increase their chance of apprehension.
Artūrs Logins, USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences
If you’re committed to a belief, it’s hard to let go. Psychology and philosophy provide different ways to think about how skeptics respond to counterevidence.
To give the best chance for science to have an impact, we need to present our arguments to the public in the most convincing ways we have available. Applied psychology can help.
False beliefs about language and speech underlie legal precedents that allow jurors to be “assisted” by unreliable transcripts of forensic audio.
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Not all false beliefs arise from malicious misinformation. Some legal precedents rest on the status of everyday ‘common knowledge’, since shown to be false, but embedded in our law nonetheless.
The quest for scientific evidence can trace its roots back to the classic masters of rhetoric.
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Memories of events are notoriously unreliable - especially after some time has passed. Experts and police have developed an app to help the general public record evidence when it’s fresh.
Evidence isn’t always as straightforward as it might first seem.
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Sunanda Creagh, The Conversation and Madeleine De Gabriele, The Conversation
Brain-zapping, the curious case of the n-rays and other stories of evidence
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You've had an x-ray before but have you had an n-ray? Of course not, because they're not real. But people used to think they were. Today, on Trust Me, I'm an Expert, we're bringing you stories on the theme of evidence.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has rejected a Trump administration proposal to reward coal and nuclear power plants for storing fuel on-site, as a way to make the power system more reliable.
Dr. Karen Lindfors, a professor of radiology and chief of breast imaging at the University of California, Davis Medical Center, examines the mammogram of a patient.
(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
The majority of research suggests the benefits of mammography screening greatly outweigh the harms for women over age 40.
While compelling, personal anecdotes of what helped people quit smoking suffer from self-selection bias. We don’t hear from people who didn’t succeed.
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In an era when opinion often trumps evidence in public health issues, it’s time to support and invest in evidence-based medicine to protect the public from dangerous, poorly informed beliefs.
Don’t believe the hype. Band-Aids might protect minor cuts but there’s no publicly available evidence they speed up healing.
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