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Metaliteracy

This guide will help you find and recognize reliable, credible information sources you find on the internet. You will discover it’s easier, and faster, to find better quality information using the library’s journal databases, videos, and books.

Possible Self-Portrait of Leonardo da Vinci.jpg. (2016, February 19). Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository. [Public Domain]

The greatest deception which men incur proceeds from their opinions.

~ Leonardo da Vinci

Leonardo da Vinci. (1906). Thoughts on art and life by Leonardo da Vinci. (M. Baring, Trans.). Boston, MA: Merrymount Press.

Being Right or Wrong

Do you think you are right about everything you believe?
What is something you believe that you could tell us you might be wrong about?
So, you don't believe you are right about everything, but you refuse to stand up and admit anything you know might be worng

Source: Housel, M. (2016, October 13) What's something you strongly believe that's likely wrong? Retrieved from https://www.collaborativefund.com/blog/whats-something-you-strongly-believe-thats-likely-wrong/

Sugar Makes Children Hyperactive

How hard would it be to find information on the Internet that says sugar consumption causes children to become hyperactive?

It would be very easy.: 3 votes (75%)

I would be very hard.: 1 votes (25%)

Total Votes: 4

Exercise #7: GVRL (Confirmation Bias)

Gale Virtual Reference Library [GVRL] library.plymouth.edu

Using the GVRL Gale Virtual Reference Library database:
- Find the first entry for "Confirmation Bias"
- Read the first two paragraphs, page 169

"While it may seem easy to avoid confirmation bias it actually is not. Virtually every thought we have every minute of every day comes with some form of biased belief, feeling, or tendency. These tendencies and beliefs end up guiding us down certain paths and have us thinking of things in certain preconceived ways." (p.169)

Source: "Confirmation Bias." World of Forensic Science, edited by Sara Constantakis, 2nd ed., vol. 1, Gale, 1016, pp.169-170. Retrieved from Gale Virtual Reference Library.

Confirmation Bias

In 1908, the amateur British archeologist, Charles Dawson, discovered "fossil" bones in Piltdown Common, England. The bones seemed to confirm the belief that a larger brain was the key to modern man's evolution. This was proof of the "missing link" between ape and man. The British scientists were so eager to prove their point, that the many indications that the skull was a hoax went unnoticed.

The hoax is a good example of confirmation bias. Many paleoanthropologists had a preconceived idea of what the "missing link" would look like and where it would be found. The Piltdown fossil remains were just what they had imagined and seemingly "proved" that their theories were correct. They were quite happy to have found the missing link, and to have found it in England. The prejudice of the time caused actual discoveries in Africa in the 1920s to be ignored. It wasn't until 1953 that the hoax was discovered. Meanwhile, scientists lost decades trying to fit Pilltdown Man into the evolutionary puzzle-- time they could have used investigating the real evidence of evolution. It's still unknown who perpetrated the hoax.

Description	English: The portrait painted by John Cooke in 1915. Back row: (left to right) F. O. Barlow, G. Elliot Smith, Charles Dawson, Arthur Smith Woodward. Front row: A. S. Underwood, Arthur Keith, W. P. Pycraft, and Sir Ray Lankester. Note the painting of Charles Darwin on the wall.
Date	1915
Source	http://blog.geolsoc.org.uk/2012/12/13/a-tale-of-three-meetings/geological/
Author	John Cooke

Exercise #8: What Do You See?

Only for Experts (This one is really hard.)

Can you detect a confirmation bias in either of these studies?

Confirmation bias doesn't occur only in irresponsible publications or biased websites. It can be found in scholarly, peer reviewed journals as well. This is more evidence that you have to look at issues from several sources.

If you can find the confirmation bias in one of these articles, you are a master detective. Can you identify exactly what the bias is?

Notice that he two articles contradict each other.

Look for:

Authority
Affiliations
Expertise

DeStefano, F., Bodenstab, H. M., & Offit, P. A. (2019). Principal controversies in vaccine safety in the United States. Clinical Infectious Diseases: An Official Publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. https://academic.oup.com/cid/advance-article-pdf/doi/10.1093/cid/ciz135/28493493/ciz135.pdf

Tomljenovic, L., & Shaw, C. A. (2011). Do aluminum vaccine adjuvants contribute to the rising prevalence of autism? Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry, 105(11), 1489–1499. https://vaccinesafetycommission.org/pdfs/24-2011-Inorg-Bio-Autism-AI-Shaw.pdf

Hint: Roll the cursor over this line to see the hint-- Do a Google search for Tomljenovic.

Last Updated: Jul 12, 2023 2:27 PM
URL: https://library.plymouth.edu/metaliteracy
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