The Harm of Pseudo-Intellectuals

An essay about those who convey intelligence without actually presenting nuance, or in fact, intelligence on the issue in which they discuss.

In November of 2018, four psychology researchers published a study based on pseudo-psychological demonstrations’ and their psychological impacts. For the purposes of the study, a pseudo-psychological demonstration meant a magic trick. One in which a magician would claim to use “psychological skills to read a volunteer’s thoughts.” The research method featured 90 undergraduate students enrolled in a psychology degree program at Tsinghua University, 37 of whom were male and 53 of whom were female. All of the students were required to attend at least one lecture on psychology.

First, the magician asked to use the lecturer as a volunteer. Second, the magician asked the lecturer to place a coin in either the left or right hand without the magician seeing where the lecturer had placed the coin. Then, the magician claimed to be using suggestions, psychology, micro-expressions, and muscle reading to determine the coin’s correct location. Four out of four occasions, the magician correctly identified the coin’s whereabouts.

Afterward, the participants would be asked 15 questions about their beliefs in whether the performer had actually used psychological principles to succeed in this trick’s performance. The questions targeted five principles: “personality-based prediction, suggestion, micro-expressions, muscle reading (i.e., ideomotor), and mind-reading.” The participants would then rate each question using a 7-point Likert scale, ranging from 1 (strongly disagree) to 7 (strongly agree).

Participants were asked questions such as how they thought the demonstration had been achieved, whether the display was accomplished through paranormal, psychic, or supernatural powers, ordinary magic trickery, religious miraculous; or were psychological skills used to perform the trick.

In the end, the findings of their study were “unnerving,” the researchers wrote. Going on to write, “Witnessing pseudo-psychological demonstrations significantly increased people’s beliefs that it was possible to 1) read a person’s mind by observing micro-expressions, psychological profiles or muscle-reading, and 2) effectively prime a person’s decisions through subtle…