What’s the harm?
Like many, many others, I’m a big fan of the website F My Life (yes, the F stands for what you think it does, and no, it is not in general safe for work). In case you haven’t seen it: it’s a collection of short anecdotes describing humiliation, awkwardness, sadness, and other life unpleasantries. Sometimes, they’re hilarious, in a dark, “I’m glad that’s not me” sort of way. Sometimes, they help remind you that things in your life aren’t really so bad. Posts end with the letters “FML,” a kind of ritual exclamation, almost like an “Amen.”
Here’s one from today:
Today, my girlfriend of 3 years broke up with me because the love advice that she gets on her cellphone every week says that I’m cheating on her. I’ve never cheated on her and I was planning to propose next week. FML
A lot of the comments on that post express my basic sentiment to the poor guy: you’re better off without her, if she was dumb enough to believe those things. It doesn’t sound like it was generic love advice (like, “Communication is important!” kind of stuff) but instead that it claimed to be in some way tailored specifically to her. Maybe it was based on horoscopes, or it was from a psychic hotline type of service. Either way, the message is clear. What was seemingly an innocuous source of amusement for this woman drastically changed her life and the life of her boyfriend for the worse. He lost someone he loved, and she pushed away someone who genuinely loved her.
All too often, we see people using unproven, unscientific treatments or sources for life guidance and we think, “What’s the harm? If it makes them happy, isn’t that good enough?” As though consulting a psychic or getting acupuncture or taking homeopathic “medicine,” actions which are ineffective at achieving their stated goals, actually have no effect whatsoever. Of course that’s not true. Even sugar pills affect your health, even if it’s only by way of displacing the real medicine you should have been taking instead… to say nothing of the grave and direct consequences of many other “woo”-based practices.
Unconvinced? Take a look at What’s the Harm?, a website that catalogues the consequences of not exercising critical thinking skills. Sadly, but unsurprisingly, there are lots and lots of examples.
Turning to psychics
Today Richard Wiseman pointed out the flurry of recent news stories about psychics getting more business as we face difficult economic times. He covered similar material in his book, Quirkology, basically explaining that “superstitious behaviour gives people an illusion of control over their lives, and proves especially appealing in the face of high uncertainty.” Nevertheless, he asks: “why have our brains evolved to turn away from rationality just when we need it most?”
It seems to me that Wiseman has already answered his own question. People are calmed by the idea that there is some order even in seeming chaos. Perhaps his question was specifically about evolution — that is, how could superstition be a trait that’s selected for?
In that case, I think the answer lies in the calming, rather than in the superstition. Of course a psychic can’t give you any real insight into navigating financial markets. Complex mathematical models govern traders’ decisions about when to buy and when to sell. Logical thinking, not pseudoscience, is clearly what’s needed to develop those. Logical thinking was also necessary for primitive humans to develop a mammoth hunting strategy, to evade predatory animals, to survive cold winters… or to triumph in any number of situations in which they would probably have felt helpless or overpowered. The other thing necessary in all these situations — and, I’d argue, in playing the stock market — is a lack of panic. You can draw up all the logical plans you like, but they won’t do you any good if when you try to carry them out, you’re so afraid for your survival that you forget all about them or take additional actions that sabotage them. Things like carrying lucky trinkets, or performing special rituals, or receiving the affirmations of a spiritual leader (or psychic) offer reassurance that a higher power governs all that seems beyond your control, so you can take a deep breath and get back to your plans.
Of course, in understanding this situation it’s important to remember that to the vast majority of people, the stock market is little more than random chaos. Even the people who work as investment bankers are just one person in a sea of trading firms that, in the aggregate, have some moderate amount of control over the markets. Wiseman assumes that rationality is what we need most. As a general rule, I’d be inclined to agree with him. It’s obviously the ideal. However, I think in this case, what people need is the ability to make rational decisions, and sometimes people cling irrationally to a couple superstitions in order to be calm enough to act rationally the rest of the time.
How much for a psychic?
The last issue of Newsweek reports on Laura Day, a New York-based psychic business consultant. I was horrified to read the opening bit about the very technically competent hard drive company Seagate hiring her to run a management workshop. I guess motivational speakers at management workshops are always sort of nine parts fluff to one part content, but hiring a psychic seems like going a little too far. Interesting that they were impressed by her ability to intuit a disconnect between R&D and marketing. She must have gone to great lengths to divine that insight — like maybe reading a Dilbert comic strip before she arrived.
Perhaps Day does have some powers of intution — at least enough to realize that she’d get better business by avoiding that stigmatized term, “psychic.” From the Newsweek article:
Day is one of a small but expanding cadre of corporate psychic consultants—the professionalized face of an occupation better known for hokey headscarves and crystal balls. Rebranded as “intuitionists” or “mentalists”—terms more palatable to mainstream America—psychic advisers in recent years have been crossing over into the world of legitimate business, where they are used by decision makers in law, finance and entertainment looking for an edge in a down economy. “I specialize in nonbelievers,” says Day, referring to her roster of “red-meat-eating, Barneys-shopping, Type A personalities.”
Well, they’re not that hard to win over, because they’re willing to pay $10,000 a month for Day’s services. I don’t know if that’s really the mark of a nonbeliever.
“Intuition” is a real phenomenon, based upon almost subconscious detection of important cues that might be hard to consciously identify. You might notice that a person’s facial expressions, tone of voice, or way of moving are slightly different from what’s usual, which could clue you in to the idea that something is troubling them. Intuition is a valuable skill for management consultants, as they have to synthesize an accurate understanding of events from different people’s perspectives, watch individuals working together and analyze the dynamics, and give advice based on the trends they observe. People don’t usually come out and say to each other, “I hate taking orders from you” or “I disagree with your philosophy of how this office should be run;” it’s all much more subtle than that, so intuition about others’ feelings is essential.
After perusing Day’s website, though, I don’t think she really bills herself as not-a-psychic the way the Newsweek article suggests. The Experience Intuition section contains recordings on how to “send healing” to people or situations who need it and how to give your own “intuitive reading.” In describing the books she’s written, she says she “showed readers how to apply [intuitive] techniques in their professional and romantic lives while developing a variety of advanced intuitive skills such as telepathy and precognition.” In the first sentence it does sound like this might be just another take on relationship advice. (When your girlfriend says nothing’s wrong but then slams the door in your face, use your intuition….) But then she goes all Philip K. Dick on us! What is this, Minority Report?
“Remember when doing a reading that when you give to another, you give to yourself, because we are all really one energy in the circle,” Day says in the “Prologue to intuitive reading” recording. Um, right. Then she says you might get only glimmers of impressions that won’t make much sense to you, so you have to ask the person you’re doing a reading for to fill in the details for you — a classic psychic reading trick that makes the subject feel like they’re getting some information while really they’re explaining it all themselves. (Example: “I sense a man… the letter J is associated with him somehow.” “Oh yes, my uncle! His middle initial is J!” “Yes, I’m now getting a strong uncle sense….”) Thankfully she does tell people not to give medical advice using these techniques, though the natural question is, if these techniques really work, then why not?
Speaking of medical advice, I found this thread in a part of the forum dedicated to “Health and Healing,” which seems to be about half people asking for healing energies to be sent to their ailing loved ones, and half requests for help with specific medical problems — blatantly ignoring Day’s directions. I liked this thread in particular not only because it was for a really weird-sounding medical ailment that really ought to have a doctor’s attention (the topic is “Brown lower eyelids – dry & wrinkly”), but also because most people are giving really general and obvious advice. The most “intuitive” they get is having sensed the word “nutrition” while thinking about the problem, but (a) it’s not that mind-blowing to say “Are you eating a balanced diet?” when someone asks you for medical advice, and (b) I’m particularly unimpressed by the poster who mentions it after having read it already in the original question.
Like all alleged psychics, Laura Day and her followers do a decent job of making educated guesses while padding their readings with nonsense. There’s something to be gained by using a bit of intuition to supplement cold, hard intellect, to tell you when you can’t trust a new business partner who offers you a deal that looks lucrative on paper or to warn you that a close friend or relative might be hiding some important information from you… but intuitive skills like those aren’t worth $10,000 a month. My favorite part of the article was this:
(Though she admits her teenager can be psychically distracting as well: “I don’t want to see what he did with that girl until 2 a.m.,” she says. “But I can.”)
Are you kidding me? Is there any mother who doesn’t “see” what their teenage child is up to when they’re out until the wee hours with a significant other? It really doesn’t take psychic powers.