Naturalistic Fallacy Errors in Lay Interpretations of Psychological Science: Data and Reflections on the Rind, Tromovitch, and Bauserman (1998) Controversy
- 1 March 2005
- journal article
- Published by Informa UK Limited in Basic and Applied Social Psychology
- Vol. 27 (1), 59-70
- https://doi.org/10.1207/s15324834basp2701_6
Abstract
The naturalistic fallacy (NF) refers to "is-ought" confusions in which empirical descriptions of nature are seen as dictating moral conclusions. Are brief warnings sufficient to prevent such unwarranted inferences among lay consumers of psychological research? Undergraduates read 2 fictitious news reports, 1 of which summarized a meta-analysis on the effects of childhood sexual abuse (Rind, Tromovitch, & Bauserman, 1998). Students endorsed as "true according to the research" nearly half of the set of NF test statements that asserted moral claims. Including a caution against NF errors had no reliable effect on responses to the sex abuse report; a caution temporarily reduced, but did not eliminate, such errors for an alternative research topic. Additional measures indicated that students-especially those under high cognitive load-perceived the moral views of the researchers as mirroring those of writers citing their work. Implications for recent debates regarding psychological research and public perceptions are discussed.Keywords
This publication has 34 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Correlates and Consequences of Newspaper Reports of Research on Sex DifferencesPsychological Science, 2004
- Political conservatism as motivated social cognition.Psychological Bulletin, 2003
- Weathering a political storm: A contextual perspective on a psychological research controversy.American Psychologist, 2002
- Politics, operant conditioning, Galileo, and the American Psychological Association's response to Rind et al. (1998).American Psychologist, 2002
- Ethics and the persuasive enterprise of teaching psychology.American Psychologist, 1998
- You can't not believe everything you read.Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 1993
- How mental systems believe.American Psychologist, 1991
- Becoming famous without being recognized: Unconscious influences of memory produced by dividing attention.Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 1989
- TV Messages for Snack and Breakfast Foods: Do They Influence Children's Preferences?Journal of Consumer Research, 1978
- Comprehension of pragmatic implications in advertising.Journal of Applied Psychology, 1977