Debunker

A debunker is a person or organization to expose or discredit claims believed to be false, exaggerated, or pretentious.[1] The term is often associated with skeptical investigation of controversial topics such as UFOs, claimed paranormal phenomena, cryptids, conspiracy theories, alternative medicine, religion, or exploratory or fringe areas of scientific or pseudoscientific research.

According to the Merriam-Webster online dictionary, to "debunk" is defined as: "to expose the sham or falseness of."[2]

If debunkers are not careful, their communications may backfire – increasing an audience's long-term belief in myths. Backfire effects can occur if a message spends too much time on the negative case, if it is too complex, or if the message is threatening.[3]

Etymology

The American Heritage Dictionary traces the passage of the words "bunk" (noun), "debunk" (verb) and "debunker" (noun) into American English in 1923 as a belated outgrowth of "bunkum", of which the first recorded use was in 1828, apparently related to a poorly received "speech for Buncombe County, North Carolina" given by North Carolina representative Felix Walker during the 16th United States Congress (1819–1821).[4]

The term "debunk" originated in a 1923 novel Bunk, by American journalist and popular historian William Woodward (1874–1950), who used it to mean to "take the bunk out of things".[5]

The term "debunkery" is not limited to arguments about scientific validity; it is also used in a more general sense at attempts to discredit any opposing point of view, such as that of a political opponent.

Notable debunkers

Ancient

• Cicero debunked divination in his philosophical treatise De Divinatione in 44 BCE.
• Sextus Empiricus debunked the claims of astrologers and dogmatic philosophers (c. 160 CE)

Modern

• Stephen Barrett founded Quackwatch and writes on medical quackery.[6]

• Dorothy Dietrich a professional magician and Houdini expert and historian. Has been put in charge of Houdini's grave site, and is the founder of The Houdini Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania.[7][8]
• Brian Dunning produces the podcast Skeptoid.[9][10]
• Stanton Friedman has debunked both supposed UFO cases and debunking attempts on other UFO cases.[11]
• Martin Gardner was a mathematics and science writer who extensively debunked parapsychology in his magazine articles and books.[12]
• Susan Gerbic is the founder and leader of Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia which has the mission of improving the skeptical content of Wikipedia.[13][14] She has focused her skeptical activism at debunking famous "psychics" such as Sylvia Brown, Chip Coffey and Tyler Henry.[15][16]
• Harry Houdini debunked spiritualists.[12][17]
• Ray Hyman is a psychologist who is known for debunking some parapsychological studies.[12]
• Philip Klass was a pioneer in the field of skeptical investigation of UFOs.[12][18]
• Alan Melikdjanian (Captain Disillusion) is a debunker of viral videos and hoaxes on the Internet, usually deconstructing them and explaining the post production techniques and software used to create the illusions.[19]
• Donald Menzel was Philip Klass's predecessor in debunking UFOs.
• Joe Nickell writes regularly for the Skeptical Inquirer.[12]
• Penn & Teller are an entertainment team who often demystify magic tricks and illusions.[20] They have also debunked many other aspects of popular belief on their show, Penn & Teller: Bullshit!.
• Phil Plait is an astronomer and science writer whose speciality is fighting pseudoscience related to space and astronomy. He established Badastronomy.com to counter public misconceptions about astronomy and space science, providing critical analysis of pseudoscientific theories related to these subjects.[21][22][23]
• Basava Premanand, founder of Indian CSICOP and the Federation of Indian Rationalist Associations,[24] has exposed various Indian "god-men" (fakirs, sadhus, swamis, gurus, faith healers)[25][26][27] and was known for being the most fierce critic of Sathya Sai Baba and his frauds.[25]
• James Randi has exposed faith healers, "psychics" and others claiming to have paranormal powers.[12][28]
• Carl Sagan was a noted astronomer who debunked purported close encounters such as the Betty and Barney Hill abduction, and pseudoscience such as Immanuel Velikovsky's Worlds in Collision.[12][29]
• Richard Saunders - prior president of Australian Skeptics - host of the Skeptic Zone podcast - science activist - CSI Fellow.[30]
• Michael Shermer, executive director and founder of the non-profit organization The Skeptics Society, and editor-in-chief of the group's magazine, Skeptic.[12]
• Britt Marie Hermes is a prominent debunker of naturopathy having once practised as a naturopath.[31]
• Benjamin Radford is an American writer, investigator, and skeptic who has authored, coauthored or contributed to over twenty books and written over a thousand articles and columns debunking topics such as urban legends, unexplained mysteries and the paranormal.[32][33]
• Phil Mason is a scientist and YouTuber with the online pseudonym Thunderf00t (also VoiceofThunder), who debunks various snake-oil merchants and fundraiser campaigns for certain products, using basic scientific understanding, e.g. the laws of Thermodynamics, to show that the advertised things simply make no sense and cannot deliver what is promised. He is known for criticising religion, pseudoscience, creationism, Hyperloop, Solar Roadways, etc.

Notable organizations

• Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
• The Skeptics Society
• The MythBusters, a program on the Discovery Channel. Two former special effects technicians, Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage, test the validity of urban legends.
• The National Institute of Standards and Technology debunked the World Trade Center controlled demolition conspiracy theories.
• Popular Mechanics has released several publications also debunking 9/11 conspiracy theories, in particular those mentioned in Loose Change.
• Snopes debunks or validates urban legends.
• Quackwatch
• James Randi Educational Foundation
• American Council on Science and Health

Backfire effects

See also: Science communication

The authors of the Debunking Handbook warn that a failed debunking can actually worsen misconceptions. They recommend simple, positive, and emotionally sensitive education (e.g., bolstering the learner's ego, or avoiding threatening words).

Australian Professorial Fellow Stephan Lewandowsky[34] and John Cook, Climate Communication Fellow for the Global Change Institute at the University of Queensland (and author at SkepticalScience.com)[35] co-wrote Debunking Handbook,[3] in which they warn that debunking efforts may backfire. Backfire effects occur when science communicators accidentally reinforce false beliefs by trying to correct them,[36] a phenomenon known as belief perseverance.[37][38]

Cook and Lewandowsky offer possible solutions to the backfire effects as described in different psychological studies. They recommend spending little or no time describing misconceptions because people cannot help but remember ideas that they have heard before. They write "Your goal is to increase people's familiarity with the facts."[3][39][40] They recommend providing fewer and clearer arguments, considering that more people recall a message when it is simpler and easier to read. "Less is more" is especially important because scientific truths can get overwhelmingly detailed; pictures, graphs, and memorable tag lines all help keep things simple.[3][41]

The authors write that debunkers should try to build up people's egos in some way before confronting false beliefs because it is difficult to consider ideas that threaten one's worldviews[3][42] (i.e., threatening ideas cause cognitive dissonance). It is also advisable to avoid words with negative connotations.[3][43] The authors describe studies which have shown that people abhor incomplete explanations – they write "In the absence of a better explanation, [people] opt for the wrong explanation". It is important to fill in conceptual gaps, and to explain the cause of the misconception in the first place.[3][44] The authors believe these techniques can reduce the odds of a "backfire" – that an attempt to debunk bad science will increase the audience's belief in misconceptions.

See also

• The True Believer
• List of scientific skeptics

References

1. "Debunker". Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved 2007-09-26. "to expose or excoriate (a claim, assertion, sentiment, etc.) as being pretentious, false, or exaggerated: to debunk advertising slogans."
2. "Definition of debunk". Merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
3. Cook, J.; Lewandowsky, S. (2011). The Debunking Handbook (PDF). St. Lucia, Australia: University of Queensland. ISBN 978-0-646-56812-6. OCLC 768864362.
4. "debunk". The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (4th ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin. 2000. Archived from the original on 2008-04-06.
5. Woodward, William (1923). Bunk. Harper & Brothers. ISBN 978-0-306-70846-6.
6. "Area parents seek answer for Autism", Times Leader, April 1, 2002, "That is coincidence, said Dr. Stephen Barrett of Allentown, a veteran debunker and operator of Quackwatch.com."
7. "Houdini Museum". Retrieved January 22, 2011.
8. Williams, Michael. "TNSJournal". Archived from the original on October 22, 2015. Retrieved October 29, 2014.
9. Weiss, Eric (2011-08-05). "10 To Start: Skeptoid". Skepticsonthe.net. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
10. "Skeptoid in Chinese!". Doubtfulnews.com. Archived from the original on 27 October 2016. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
11. Dickinson, Terence. "The Zeta Reticuli Incident". NICAP.org. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
12. "Skeptical Inquirer Magazine Names the Ten Outstanding Skeptics of the Century". Archived from the original on 25 March 2008. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
13. "Skeptical Connections: Susan Gerbic". Archived from the original on 2 May 2014. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
14. "Wikapediatrician Susan Gerbic discusses her Guerrilla Skepticism on Wikipedia project". CSICOP.org. The Center for Inquiry. 2013-03-08. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
15. Coyne, Jerry (2016-01-21). "E! about to debut new show starring a psychic 'grief vampire' ". Wordpress.com. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
16. "Grief Vampires Don't Come Out Only at Night". CSICOP.org. The Center for Inquiry. 2016-01-20. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
17. Houdini and the spiritualists, Summit Daily News, November 3, 2007, "Houdini himself wouldn’t have believed in his second coming anyway, because he didn’t believe in spirit manifestations. In fact, he spent much of his life and career debunking spiritualists and mediums – an admirable mission that history and forensic specialists now tell us probably led to his untimely death at the age of 52."
18. "Pseudoscience, Skepticism To Make A Close Encounter", Seattle Times, June 12, 1994
19. Blevins, Joe. "Beakman and Captain Disillusion debunk those "free energy" machines". A.V. Club. Onion Inc. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
20. Review/Theater; "Penn and Teller Offer Several Variations On a Magic Theme", The New York Times, April 4, 1991, "As debunkers, they seek to remove the mystique from magic, to demonstrate the digitation behind the presti."
21. "Moon Hoax Spurs Crusade Against Bad Astronomy". NYTimes.com. Reuters. Retrieved 8 January 2017.
22. "James Randi Educational Foundation Names New President". Archive.randi.org. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
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24. Johannes Quack (22 November 2011). Disenchanting India: Organized Rationalism and Criticism of Religion in India. Oxford University Press. pp. 98, 99, 101. ISBN 978-0-19-981260-8. Retrieved 27 June 2013.
25. Datta, Tanya (2004-06-17). "Sai Baba: God-man or con man?". BBC. Retrieved 2017-12-03.
26. Sushil Rao (25 April 2011). "His harshest critics died with a wish unfulfilled". The Times of India. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
27. "An Indian Skeptic's explanation of miracles". Mukto Mona. Retrieved 3 November 2017.
28. The wizard gets a windfall – even the Amazing Randi needs advice on how to keep his $272,000 prize from vanishing, CNN Money, September 1, 1986, "Randi began his campaign against fakes in earnest in 1964, during a stint as the host of a radio talk show in Manhattan. He had become disturbed by the number of listeners phoning in with such flummery as tales of self-styled clairvoyants' uncannily correct forecasts. Gradually, his work as a debunker began to rival his show-business career, gathering momentum in the early 1970s, when Uri Geller caught Randi's attention."
29. "Obituaries; Betty Hill, 85; Claim of Abduction by Aliens Led to Fame", Los Angeles Times, Oct 24, 2004, "Carl Sagan, the Pulitzer Prize-winning astronomer, was among the Hills' debunkers, yet he considered their story noteworthy."
30. "Power Balance Tests". YouTube. TodayTonight. Retrieved 17 June 2020.
31. Kirkey, Sharon (2016-04-04). "Should naturopaths be restricted from treating children after tragic death of Alberta toddler?". National Post. Retrieved 3 December 2017.
32. Radford, Benjamin (2014). Mysterious New Mexico. Albuquerque, NM: University of New Mexico Press. ISBN 978-0-8263-5450-1.
33. Radford, Benjamin (Sep–Oct 2007), "Santa Fe 'Courthouse Ghost' Mystery Solved", Skeptical Inquirer, Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, 31 (5), retrieved April 10, 2013
34. "Stephan Lewandowsky". psy.uwa.edu.au. Cognitive Science Laboratories, University of Western Australia. Archived from the original on 2011-11-25. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
35. "About". skepticalscience.com. Skeptical Science. Retrieved 15 December 2011.
36. Silverman, Craig (June 17, 2011). "The Backfire Effect: More on the press’s inability to debunk bad information". Columbia Journalism Review, Columbia University (New York City).
37. Baumeister, R. F., ed. (2007). Encyclopedia of Social Psychology. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage. pp. 109–110. ISBN 9781412916707.
38. Beveridge, W. I. B. (1950). The Art of Scientific Investigation. New York: Norton. p. 106.
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40. Weaver, K.; Garcia, S.M.; Schwarz, N.; Miller, D.T. (2007). "Inferring the popularity of an opinion from its familiarity: A repetitive voice sounds like a chorus". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 92 (5): 821–833. doi:10.1037/0022-3514.92.5.821. PMID 17484607.
41. Schwarz, N.; Sanna, L.; Skurnik, I.; Yoon, C. (2007). Metacognitive experiences and the intricacies of setting people straight: Implications for debiasing and public information campaigns. Advances in Experimental Social Psychology. 39. pp. 127–161. doi:10.1016/S0065-2601(06)39003-X. ISBN 9780120152391.
42. Nyhan, Brendan; Reifler, Jason (June 2010). "When corrections fail: the persistence of political misperceptions". Political Behavior. 32 (2): 303–330. doi:10.1007/s11109-010-9112-2.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link) Pdf.
43. Hardisty, D.J.; Johnson, E.J.; Weber, E.U. (1999). "A dirty word or a dirty world?: Attribute framing, political affiliation, and query theory". Psychological Science. 21 (1): 86–92. doi:10.1177/0956797609355572. PMID 20424028.
44. Ecker, U.K.; Lewandowsky, S.; Tang, D.T. (2011). "Explicit warnings reduce but do not eliminate the continued influence of misinformation". Memory & Cognition. 38 (8): 1087–1100. doi:10.3758/MC.38.8.1087. PMID 21156872.