Just finished reading Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Shermer. The book aims to serve as an introduction and guide to skeptical thinking by guiding the reader through some of the more widespread examples of pseudoscientific and generally irrational modern beliefs, and discussing the fallacies that lie behind these beliefs. The author is generally successful; unfortunately, a few drawbacks serve to mar the book as a whole.
Shermer spends a significant number of pages at the outset of the book establishing the theoretical foundation of science and skepticism. This foundation serves him well throughout the book, as he refers back to hallmarks of logic and illogic to demonstrate precisely how believers of “weird things” go wrong in their thinking. Unfortunately, by referencing such heavyweight thinkers as Einstein and Hume, the author ensures that the few missteps in thought on his own part are dramatically obvious.
In two chapters of the book (Epidemics of Accusations and How We Know the Holocaust Happened) Shermer uses the concept of the feedback loop. In the case of the witchcraft loop he lays out the elements of the loop well, documenting how a culture of fear, paranoia, and anger leads to accusations, accusations to punishment, punishment to more accusations, increased accusations to more fear, more fear to more punishment, etc. Frustratingly, his visual model does not translate this accurate depiction from text to image; rather, he takes the linear series of events (rumors, accusations and trials, mounting skepticism, then accusers becoming accused) and wraps it into a circle. As mounting scepticism did not lead to a new round of witch trials, and the events in 1944-45 did not lead to another persecution of Jews and other Nazi-despised groups, simply connecting the end a linear series of events to the beginning does not make a feedback loop.
At the end of “Pigeonholes and Continuums”, Shermer uses Kinsey’s work on human sexuality to make his point that genetic variation between individuals is greater than the average variation between groups, which invalidates the scientific argument for a genetic basis of IQ discrepancies between races. While I don’t believe there is a genetic basis for significant intelligence gaps between races, I don’t buy Shermer’s argument (what about race-specific or selective diseases, such as sickle-cell anemia?). Nevertheless, the argument seems a valid, if debatable, point… until the following chapter, when he cites research that demonstrates measurable differences in the psyches of first-borns and later-borns. If the greater disparity between traits of individuals as opposed to average traits of groups is important in one context (race and genetics), why is that same argument ignored in another context (birth order and upbringing)?
What makes these occasional issues frustrating is that the book as a whole is solid. Shermer advances his argument well, consistently calling for logical consistency and extraordinary proof for extraordinary claims. He ties common themes of confused thinking together, demonstrating how believers of various debunked (or just plain wrong) claims fall into the same traps. He also manages to maintain reader interest while generally avoiding an elitist tone by interspersing his scientific arguments with stories and descriptions of the people central to his targeted beliefs, at once establishing their humanity and wrongness.
Why People Believe Weird Things is an entertaining and illuminating book – but it requires that the reader engage in some skepticism with regards to the claims of the author, as well as that which he seeks to disprove.