Mike Sutton
Dr Mike Sutton is the author of 'Nullius in Verba: Darwin's greatest secret'.
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Braced Myths Wanted From Any Field of Knowledge
Feb. 14, 2011 7:43 am
In 2010 I discovered a problem that seems to have stemmed from orthodox experts engaging in unscholarly attempts to identify and bust myths. I discovered this problem whilst fact checking a most famous story of the impact of bad data on policy making.
I named the phenomenon the Braced Myth and defined it as precisely as I could.
Note: Braced Myths are started by orthodox experts and are then braced by orthodox expert sceptics who - by way of their own scholarship - think they are true and so use them, with painful irony, as examples of the need to be healthily sceptical.
Are you aware of a case where orthodox experts have created myths, fallacies, pseudo scholarship or other junk science that has then been believed by experts who, with unintentional irony, in turn, used it as an example to support the need to be sceptical of 'bad science', pseudo scholarship and other counterknowledge? As you can see, what I am looking for has three very specific components (1) the creationof a fallacy, myth or error by an orthodox expert and (2) it being used by another expert who in turn promotes it as being ‘true’ and (3) promotes it as a good example of the need to be healthily sceptical of that which is not so.
I suspect that braced myths are likely to be quite rare. But once found, each one will most certainly be a case of the most exquisite irony.
In 2011 I found two more - this time interrelated - braced myths. These are in the field of criminology and are currently relied upon to support the notion that beat policing is per se ineffective in tackling and reducing crime.
What is the Social Significance of Braced Myths?
To seek to gauge the social significance of Braced Myths I am looking for further examples from any field of knowledge.
I would be most grateful if anyone could kindly let me know of any others.
Anita Miller
March 6, 2011 at 4:49 pm
I have a couple questions for you
Will you please email me? I'm writing a musical for elementary school-age children about the whole spinach-decimal point debacle and I want to confirm my understanding of the situation is correct. Thank you in advance for your reply!!!
Hi Anita
Yes of course. I'm sure I can find your email address on this site. I'll send you an email. Thereafter,.feel free to ask away.
Mike
Hi Anita
Seems I can't find your email address. However, you can email me at michael.sutton@ntu.ac.uk Please feel free to ask your questions in your opening email and I'll do my best to answer them all.
Mke
Many thanks Alex. That is going to be very useful for me in future for providing an example of what comes close - but is not a braced myth. It's almost as good as getting the real thing therefore.
I can't think of a successful braced myth, but I know of an attempt to create one. In the 1970s, there were a lot of scary reports in the popular press that a new ice age was impending. Now climate skeptics want us to believe that this was the prevailing view in the scientific community as well. And they do so as an example of the need to be more skeptical of climate science. However, Mark Bowen in his book Censoring Science points out that there was never more than a handful of people in the scientific community who believed this. I checked the scientific literature of the 1970s, and my impression is that Bowen is right. I don't know of any serious scientists who endorse this myth, so I don't think it qualifies as a braced myth.
