VOA教育报道2023--University Classes on Pseudoscience, Conspiracies

University Classes on Pseudoscience, Conspiracies¹

In November 2018, about 600 people gathered for a two-day convention in Denver, Colorado.

They wore clothes saying the Earth is flat. They listened to speakers who rejected findings from the American space agency NASA and much of the scientific community. They believed that the Earth is a flat, thin round object as seen in pictures taken from space.

Many pseudoscience claims are often connected to conspiracy² theories. In addition to flat Earth, the Colorado Sun reported that many attendees believed that vaccines³ do not protect against disease. And they did not believe the Apollo moon landings, the Sandy Hook shooting, and the attack on September 11 were real.

Among the attendees at the flat Earth convention was Craig Foster. He is a professor of psychology⁴ at the State University of New York (SUNY) Cortland. He went to the convention to study the ways "flat-Earthers" think, communicate, and experience their gatherings⁵.

Faulty reasoning

Foster now teaches a class called Psychology of Pseudoscience at SUNY Cortland. The class helps students understand why people believe in and support pseudoscience. Pseudo means not real. Pseudoscience is a collection of theories and practices mistakenly believed by supporters as being based on science.

Foster wrote in The Conversation that the class explores two issues: "motivated reasoning" and "group polarization".

Motivated reasoning is "the tendency for people to process information in a way that helps them confirm what they already want to believe." For example, this can lead them to rely on only one or two examples to support their claims while ignoring other information.

People also tend to socialize with groups of people who agree with them. Foster said that once people become involved socially and connect a belief to their identity, it becomes increasingly difficult for them to give up those beliefs, even if the claims are false.

Foster told VOA: "A big driver of the problem, the real driver, is when people are so invested they just can't see their way out of it anymore."

Jarrod Atchison teaches a class called Conspiracy Theories in American Public Discourse⁶ at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He said the internet has affected⁷ the spread of false claims, and many colleges now offer classes centering on misinformation.

Atchison said conspiracy groups like Q-Anon would invite their online followers⁸ to find evidence to support a claim. Rather than relying on a few experts, conspiracy movements can now get thousands of people to join in the building of the beliefs.

Atchison told VOA: ". . .but it's been amplified⁹ in our new media environment... It's so much more participatory because anybody can get credibility in that community if they have a creative interpretation¹⁰ of what's being put out into the world."

Preparing students

Both Foster and Atchison train students to understand the ways promoters of pseudoscience and conspiracies think. Atchison helps students form what he calls "argument maps" which show the ways conspiracy theorists build their arguments. Once students can "read" the map, they can develop a plan to push back against the conspiracy.

In Foster's class, students must create their own pseudoscientific claim and write a paper supporting it. One student even wrote what Foster calls a "pseudohistorical" paper, claiming that owls¹¹ are intelligent aliens who have been secretly controlling humans for centuries.

Foster said there are pseudoscientific claims his students sometimes believe are true, such as astrology and creationism. Astrology is the belief that the relative position of stars influences a person's personality and life events. Creationism denies the theory of human evolution. He said these cases force students to examine their own reasoning.

Both professors brought guest speakers to their classes, including supporters of Bigfoot - an ape-like creature two-and-a-half meters tall believed to live in the northwestern U.S. and Canada.

Foster wants his students to understand that believers in Bigfoot, ghosts, or psychics¹² are not "crazy" or unintelligent. He added that arguing with these believers rarely changes their views. And students need to learn how to communicate respectfully with people whose beliefs may differ from their own.

Foster's class also looked at the danger of the anti-vaccination movements, investments run by psychics, and denial of climate change.

And Atchison talked about an exercise from the U.S. Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) last year. The exercise imagined an asteroid¹³ hitting Winston-Salem, home to about 250,000 people.

Atchison said: "And they (FEMA) came to the conclusion that 20 percent of Winston-Salem would not evacuate¹⁴ because they would not trust the message. They would not trust NASA and they would not trust FEMA"

He said, "NASA and FEMA... are starting to ask the same question: with science as politicized as it is today, how do we talk about this stuff in a way that could persuade people when their lives might depend on it?"

Words in This Story

conspiracy -n. secret planning by a group of people to do something harmful or illegal

motivated -adj. showing a strong desire to achieve a certain goal or result

polarization -n. division into two opposing groups or forces

tendency -n. a recurring¹⁵ habit or inclination¹⁶ to act or occur in a certain way

amplify¹⁷ -v. to increase in intensity¹⁸ or force

participatory -adj. characterized by active inclusion and participation¹⁹ of all the members of a group

interpretation -n. one's opinion about what something means

aliens -n. intelligent life from other planets

evolution -n. the development and differentiation²⁰ of forms of life (species) over time; the theory explaining such development and differentiation

psychics -n. people who claim to predict the future or communicate with the spirits of people no longer alive

evacuate -v. to move away from an area of danger

stuff -n. things, issues, or ideas

1 conspiracies   

n.阴谋，密谋( conspiracy的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• He was still alive and hatching his conspiracies. 他还活着，策划着阴谋诡计。 来自辞典例句
• It appeared that they had engaged in fresh conspiracies from the very moment of their release. 看上去他们刚给释放，立刻开始新一轮的阴谋活动。 来自英汉文学

2 conspiracy   

n.阴谋，密谋，共谋

参考例句：

• The men were found guilty of conspiracy to murder.这些人被裁决犯有阴谋杀人罪。
• He claimed that it was all a conspiracy against him.他声称这一切都是一场针对他的阴谋。

3 vaccines   

疫苗，痘苗( vaccine的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His team are at the forefront of scientific research into vaccines. 他的小组处于疫苗科研的最前沿。
• The vaccines were kept cool in refrigerators. 疫苗放在冰箱中冷藏。

4 psychology   

n.心理，心理学，心理状态

参考例句：

• She has a background in child psychology.她受过儿童心理学的教育。
• He studied philosophy and psychology at Cambridge.他在剑桥大学学习哲学和心理学。

5 gatherings   

聚集( gathering的名词复数 )； 收集； 采集； 搜集

参考例句：

• His conduct at social gatherings created a lot of comment. 他在社交聚会上的表现引起许多闲话。
• During one of these gatherings a pupil caught stealing. 有一次，其中一名弟子偷窃被抓住。

6 discourse   

n.论文，演说；谈话；话语；vi.讲述，著述

参考例句：

• We'll discourse on the subject tonight.我们今晚要谈论这个问题。
• He fell into discourse with the customers who were drinking at the counter.他和站在柜台旁的酒客谈了起来。

7 affected   

adj.不自然的，假装的

参考例句：

• She showed an affected interest in our subject.她假装对我们的课题感到兴趣。
• His manners are affected.他的态度不自然。

8 followers   

追随者( follower的名词复数 )； 用户； 契据的附面； 从动件

参考例句：

• the followers of Mahatma Gandhi 圣雄甘地的拥护者
• The reformer soon gathered a band of followers round him. 改革者很快就获得一群追随者支持他。

9 amplified   

放大，扩大( amplify的过去式和过去分词 )； 增强； 详述

参考例句：

• He amplified on his remarks with drawings and figures. 他用图表详细地解释了他的话。
• He amplified the whole course of the incident. 他详述了事件的全过程。

10 interpretation   

n.解释，说明，描述；艺术处理

参考例句：

• His statement admits of one interpretation only.他的话只有一种解释。
• Analysis and interpretation is a very personal thing.分析与说明是个很主观的事情。

11 owls   

n.猫头鹰( owl的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• 'Clumsy fellows,'said I; 'they must still be drunk as owls.' “这些笨蛋，”我说，“他们大概还醉得像死猪一样。” 来自英汉文学 - 金银岛
• The great majority of barn owls are reared in captivity. 大多数仓鸮都是笼养的。 来自辞典例句

12 psychics   

心理学，心灵学； （自称）通灵的或有特异功能的人，巫师( psychic的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One week later, I got cops and psychics on my front door. 一礼拜后，警察跟通灵人站到了我家大门口。
• Even now Directorate Psychics and powerful drugs are keeping the creature pacified. 即使是现在，联邦部队的精神力和威力强大的药剂还在让这个生物活在沉睡之中。

13 asteroid   

n.小行星；海盘车(动物)

参考例句：

• Astronomers have yet to witness an asteroid impact with another planet.天文学家还没有目击过小行星撞击其它行星。
• It's very unlikely that an asteroid will crash into Earth but the danger exists.小行星撞地球的可能性很小，但这样的危险还是存在的。

14 evacuate   

v.遣送；搬空；抽出；排泄；大(小)便

参考例句：

• We must evacuate those soldiers at once!我们必须立即撤出这些士兵！
• They were planning to evacuate the seventy American officials still in the country.他们正计划转移仍滞留在该国的70名美国官员。

15 recurring   

adj.往复的，再次发生的

参考例句：

• This kind of problem is recurring often. 这类问题经常发生。
• For our own country, it has been a time for recurring trial. 就我们国家而言，它经过了一个反复考验的时期。

16 inclination   

n.倾斜；点头；弯腰；斜坡；倾度；倾向；爱好

参考例句：

• She greeted us with a slight inclination of the head.她微微点头向我们致意。
• I did not feel the slightest inclination to hurry.我没有丝毫着急的意思。

17 amplify   

vt.放大，增强；详述，详加解说

参考例句：

• The new manager wants to amplify the company.新经理想要扩大公司。
• Please amplify your remarks by giving us some examples.请举例详述你的话。

18 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

19 participation   

n.参与，参加，分享

参考例句：

• Some of the magic tricks called for audience participation.有些魔术要求有观众的参与。
• The scheme aims to encourage increased participation in sporting activities.这个方案旨在鼓励大众更多地参与体育活动。

20 differentiation   

n.区别，区分

参考例句：

• There can be no differentiation without contrast. 有比较才有差别。
• The operation that is the inverse of differentiation is called integration. 与微分相反的运算叫做积分。