The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe: How to Know What's Really Real in a World Increasingly Full of Fake

by Steven Novella

Recovered memory syndrome is mostly, if not entirely, a fiction. People generally do not repress memories of extreme trauma (the existence of rare exceptions remains controversial).

Our beliefs do not sit passively in our brains waiting to be confirmed or contradicted by incoming information. Instead, they play a key role in shaping how we see the world.

Hyperactive agency detection is the tendency to interpret events as if they were the deliberate intent of a conscious agent rather than the product of natural forces or unguided chaotic events.

There is a very remarkable inclination in human nature to bestow on external objects the same emotions which it observes in itself, and to find everywhere those ideas which are most present to it. —David Hume

Seeing natural or random events as the will of an agent is HADD.

Before hypothesizing about spirits, new forces, or supernatural abilities, consider that—just maybe—your brain (like the brain of every other human on the planet) has some quirks and foibles. That is the meaning of neuropsychological humility.

The Dunning-Kruger effect describes the inability to evaluate one’s own competency, leading to a general tendency to overestimate one’s abilities.

The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance—it is the illusion of knowledge. —Daniel J. Boorstin

psychological experiments show that most people start with conclusions they desire, then reverse engineer arguments to support them—a process called rationalization.

every time someone tries to form an argument to support a conclusion that isn’t true, they must either employ a false premise or a logical fallacy.

Skepticism isn’t closed-minded, and the opposite of skepticism is not open-mindedness (it’s gullibility). Scientists, critical thinkers, and skeptics can and should be completely open-minded, which means being open to the evidence and logic whatever it says. If the evidence supports a view, then we will accept that view in proportion to the evidence.