Can you read my mind?

John Tierney reports in the New York Times that the United States is producing less paranormal research, apparently ceding the field to Britain. Tierney ponders the reasons for this, including that scientific literacy is growing among Americans, with fewer of us believing in Bigfoot or the ability of psychics to predict the future.

A more worthy subject of academic inquiry lies in determining just why people persist in believing in such phenomena, despite the efforts of skeptics to debunk them. One of the nation's foremost experts in human irrationality can be found--you guessed it--here at Carnegie Mellon. Robyn Dawes, the Charles J. Queenan Professor of Psychology in the Department of Social and Decision Sciences, is the author of "Everyday Irrationality: How Pseudoscientists, Lunatics and the Rest of Us Fail to Be Rational." Throughout his 40-year career, Dawes has made a significant impact on several areas of psychological science, including human cooperation, judgment and decision-making, and intuition and irrationality.

Dawes' work in debunking myths and the views of self-proclaimed experts is based in a concern for humanity that motivates much of his research. As a member of the National Research Council's Committee on AIDS Research in the 1990s, Dawes fought baseless misconceptions that needle exchange programs--which can stop the spread of AIDS among intravenous drug users--promote drug abuse. And in his book "House of Cards: Psychology and Psychotherapy Built on Myth", Dawes called out mental health professionals for ignoring empirical research in favor of techniques that do not hold up to scientific inquiry.

Jonathan Potts