Summary
Title: Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias: Why We Need Critical Thinking
Author: edited by Robert E. Bartholomew, Benjamin Radford
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1591020484
Pro:
• Numerous real incidents and beliefs examined, explained, and critiqued
• Study questions follow every case study
Con:
• Some case studies are rather brief - a bit more depth would be helpful
Description:
• Introduction to principles and methods of critical thinking
• Case studies of mass delusions and bizarre beliefs around the world
• Explores how cultural assumptions influence what we believe
Book Review
Perhaps one of the most important things to understand is that good critical thinking generally isn't something that will come "naturally" to people. As natural and automatic as thinking is, critical thinking requires practice, especially if you want to do it well. In fact, it's not unlike the way a person needs to put in the time and effort to learn how to swim or run well.
Because of the need to practice, most materials that teach and encourage critical thinking do so through the use of case studies. This is what we have in the book Hoaxes, Myths, and Manias, written by Robert E. Bartholomew, an independent scholar and writer, and Benjamin Radford, the managing editor of Skeptical Inquirer magazine.
This method has the advantage of allowing us to look at individual issues more deeply, although there is the disadvantage of giving the impression that the point is to debunk individual beliefs rather than to examine how those beliefs are formed and why they are reasoned badly. Indeed, this is a problem which afflicts many works which rely upon case studies to teach about critical thinking - but Bartholomew and Radford do a very good job at avoiding this trap.
For example, in their discussion about the "Martian Panic" instigated by the infamous War of the Worlds play in 1938, the authors give only a cursory explanation about the facts of the incident - just enough to provide people with background information. After this, they move to a general discussion about what people did wrong and the lessons we can all learn from the incident - lessons which continue to have application even today.
For one thing, the War of the Worlds helps to make it clear that our ability to perceive things and remember past experiences is flawed. We can go about our lives as if those flaws either do not exist or are irrelevant, but situations like this illustrate how much impact those flaws can have. Our memories are not like tape recorders - we do not so much remember events as we reconstruct them based upon bits and pieces. As a result, what we remember experiencing may not be at all what we really experienced.
Another important lesson is the power of mass media. Even in 1938, when the media was not nearly so all-pervasive, it still managed to influence and panic many people - although not so many people as is commonly assumed.
Irresponsible reporting can cause tremendous damage while responsible and accurate reporting can do a great deal of good. People cannot afford to accept what they hear on radio or TV uncritically or unskeptically.
Finally, and perhaps most importantly, this incident demonstrated that mass delusions and hysteria are not merely a part of humanity's ancient past. Such things can happen here and now - and indeed, they continue to happen. Many chapters in the rest of book describe such situations around the world: mad gassers, mysterious airships in New England, monkey men in India, black helicopters in England, jumping Frenchmen in Maine, genital-shrinking scares, and more.
Why do people believe such outrageous things? Bartholomew and Radford show that cultural assumptions, cultural fears, and even wish-fulfillment all play important roles. Of particular significance, however, is simply the fact that people can be so ready to believe so many things without any attempt to think critically about them. People aren't accustomed to critical thinking and they don't practice; yet perhaps books like this will help them learn how, learn why they should, and improve at it over time.
