Chapter 1, as many of us have now read, is a brief summary of what Psychology is and a in depth analysis of what it is not. The idea of pseudoscience is the main premiss of this chapter, specifically, how we, as scientific thinkers, can detect the warning signs of pseudoscience.
While reading the chapter, the part that I found the most interesting was the concept of apophenia and pareidolia. If you can not remember, these are drawing meaningful connections or visual images from unrelated phenomena or meaningless visual stimuli. I was shocked by the commonalities between former presidents Lincoln and Kennedy. With facts similar to the ones provided in the book about the presidents, it is easy to see why some people believe that there is some sort of link between the two incidents.
Another interesting part of the chapter for me was the side note about "The Face on Mars." The book shows an image where the shadows and lighting clearly make the face jump out at you, and then another where we see "The Face on Mars" in its true form as just another bump on Mars' vast surface. I enjoyed this section because I have a knack for looking for things like this around me, specifically people who look like animals.
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