The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories

Presented by Zelda Gilbert, Retired professor of psychology

May 4, 2024, 1:30pm

Central Library
Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium
1015 North Quincy Street
Arlington, VA [map] [directions]
(Virginia Square-GMU Metro station)
FREE admission – Everyone welcome, members and non-members


 Also a YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

NCASVideo YouTube Channel:

https://youtu.be/Du5JWbvSAjc  (corrected URL)

Dr. Gilbert will discuss how the tools of modern psychology can be used to explore the prevalence, motivations, and content of historical and contemporary conspiracy theories. This will include conspiracy theories concerning such things as Lincoln’s assassination, chemtrails, the destruction of the battleship Maine, election fraud, and space lasers from orbit. Concepts such as existential, epistemic and socio-psychological motivations will be defined and applied to various theories, providing the audience with the tools to do their own analyses. Finally, audience members will be invited to create and evaluate their own conspiracy theories.


Zelda Gilbert is a retired professor of psychology with over 40 years experience in higher education. She currently lectures on  political psychology, conspiracy theories, and other topics, mostly for the continuing education Silver Frogs program at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth. She completed a doctorate in counseling psychology at the University of Kentucky and studied political psychology at UCLA. 

Cancer Risk Assessment, Its Wretched History and Its Impact on Public Health


Presented by 

Edward J. Calabrese, Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, 

School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst.

April 13, 2024, 1:30-3:00pm

On YouTube, (https://youtube.com/live/3R8YuZXUklI?feature=share

The historical foundations of cancer risk assessment were based on fundamental scientific errors that were never corrected, all within the framework of an extraordinary appeal to the authority of the radiation genetics community, led by Hermann J Muller. Even though these individuals were greatly talented and accomplished, they were driven by ideological and self-serving professional biases that would lead to both falsification of the research record and suppression of key scientific findings, all in an effort to establish the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for hereditary and cancer risk assessment, replacing the threshold dose response model. This troubling history has now been revealed in a long series of peer reviewed publications by the author and summarized in a 22-episode documentary by the Health Physics Society* (https://hps.org/hpspublications/historylnt/episodeguide.html). This troubling history remained hidden from the regulatory agencies around the globe since their inception. These groups simply and uncritically accepted a flawed and corrupt history, assuming that it was accurate and reliable. Yet, this path of historical ignorance led the US EPA, and other national regulatory agencies, to accept a dishonest foundation upon which to base and frame cancer risk assessment, terribly failing in their public service mission. This untenable situation has placed a continuing stranglehold on the actions of all regulatory agencies worldwide, improperly guiding its philosophies, policies and practices down to the present time.

(*Note that the views expressed in these videos do not necessarily represent official positions of the Health Physics Society.)

Edward J. Calabrese is a Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst. Dr. Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of over 1,000 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the 2009 Marie Curie Prize from the World Council of Nuclear Workers for his body of work on hormesis. He was the recipient of the International CCN Society's Springer award for 2010. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from McMaster University in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded the Petr Beckmann Award from Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the G. William Morgan Lectureship Award and the Robert S. Landauer, Sr., Lectureship Award in 2022 from the Health Physics Society.

Shadow of a Doubt - April 2024

 

  • Lecture April 13 - Cancer Risk Assessment, presented by Edward J. Calabrese, PhD
  • Eldrich investigations and a discount for NCAS
  • May NCAS Lecture -Zelda Gilbert will present the "Psychology of Conspiracy Theories".
  • April PhACT Lecture
    Our skeptical neighbors to the north, the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT), will host their next online event on Saturday, April 20 at 2 PM ET.  Skeptical Inquirer columnist Rob Palmer ("The Well-Known Skeptic") will present "What's the Harm of Psychics?"
  • April Bay Area Skeptics Lecture
    The [San Francisco] Bay Area Skeptics will host their next online event on Thursday, April 11 at 10:30 PM ET.  Dave Farina, a science communicator and generalist best known for his YouTube channel, "Professor Dave Explains," will present "The Birth of the Science Communicator."
  •  "60 Minutes" Focuses Again on "Havana Syndrome" Weapon Hypothesis
  • More videos from CSICon 2023
  • NCAS membership
  • Shadow Light
  • Time to Renew
See the complete April 2024 Shadow

Shadow of a Doubt - April 2024

April 2024

NCAS Public Lecture Series

Cancer Risk Assessment
Its Wretched History and Its Impact on Public Health


 YouTube Live Event with Q and A 

Edward J. Calabrese, PhD
Professor of Toxicology, UMass Amherst

Saturday, April 13, 1:30pm US/Eastern (UTC-04:00)
NCASVideo YouTube Channel:




The historical foundations of cancer risk assessment were based on fundamental scientific errors that were never corrected, all within the framework of an extraordinary appeal to the authority of the radiation genetics community, led by Hermann J Muller. Even though these individuals were greatly talented and accomplished, they were driven by ideological and self-serving professional biases that would lead to both falsification of the research record and suppression of key scientific findings, all in an effort to establish the linear no-threshold (LNT) model for hereditary and cancer risk assessment, replacing the threshold dose response model. This troubling history has now been revealed in a long series of peer reviewed publications by the author and summarized in a 22-episode documentary by the Health Physics Society* (https://hps.org/hpspublications/historylnt/episodeguide.html).


This troubling history remained hidden from the regulatory agencies around the globe since their inception. These groups simply and uncritically accepted a flawed and corrupt history, assuming that it was accurate and reliable. Yet, this path of historical ignorance led the US EPA, and other national regulatory agencies, to accept a dishonest foundation upon which to base and frame cancer risk assessment, terribly failing in their public service mission. This untenable situation has placed a continuing stranglehold on the actions of all regulatory agencies worldwide, improperly guiding its philosophies, policies and practices down to the present time.

(*Note that the views expressed in these videos do not necessarily represent official positions of the Health Physics Society.)

Edward J. Calabrese is a Professor of Toxicology at the University of Massachusetts, School of Public Health and Health Sciences, Amherst. Dr. Calabrese has researched extensively in the area of host factors affecting susceptibility to pollutants, and is the author of over 1,000 papers in scholarly journals, as well as more than 10 books. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the 2009 Marie Curie Prize from the World Council of Nuclear Workers for his body of work on hormesis. He was the recipient of the International CCN Society's Springer award for 2010. He was awarded an Honorary Doctor of Science Degree from McMaster University in 2013. In 2014 he was awarded the Petr Beckmann Award from Doctors for Disaster Preparedness. Dr. Calabrese was awarded the G. William Morgan Lectureship Award and the Robert S. Landauer, Sr., Lectureship Award in 2022 from the Health Physics Society.

Dr. Calabrese says that the following materials provide a very useful background for his presentation:

The historical foundations of cancer risk assessment, hosted on the Health Physics Society site and on their YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/@healthphysicssociety5037/videos

Note that the 22 episodes total several hours, but can be expedited by adjusting the YouTube playback speed to 1.25x, 1.5x, 1.75x, or 2x.

Two papers on the topic:




https://www.ncas.org/2024/03/cancer-risk-assessment-its-wretched.html


How to Watch and Participate in this Online Discussion Event:

1) Use a supported browser... https://www.youtube.com/supported_browsers
2) Use the link https://youtu.be/3R8YuZXUklI
3) The live stream begins shortly before 1:30pm US/Eastern (UTC-04:00) on Saturday, April 13, 2024.
4) To post questions, you must be signed in to a Google account.
5) Post your questions in the chat window to the right of the video player when the live stream is active.
6) Click into where it says "Say something..." and begin typing (up to 200 characters). Then click the send icon .

Along with your question, please post what city or town you're in.



Eldritch Investigations and a Discount for NCAS
"Cults and cryptids collide when a curious Washingtonian investigates local unexplained phenomena.  Explore the lure of the unknown and its entanglement with DC history in this multi-chapter adventure across the city."

At the start of the pandemic, the local Rorschach Theatre company created a unique theatrical experience that extended over the course of 9-10 months. It was originally a way for the show to go on when the pandemic shut down stage performances, but it has been so successful that they've continued into their 4th year with an all-new story in December 2023.

Rorschach often incorporates elements of fantasy, horror, and/or supernatural. This coming season the Eldritch Investigations project involves themes particularly close to NCAS. The company has extended a 20% discount to NCAS members.

Subscribers receive a monthly box or envelope with maps, directions to locales around DC, and other artifacts such as postcards, telegrams, and various trinkets that help unfold a story over the course of 9-10 months. You investigate these locations at your own pace, on your own time. They also provide online videos for those who can't visit in person.

The adventure has already begun, so new subscribers will receive all previous chapters in the first shipment.

For the discount, use code NCAS when subscribing here:

https://rorschachtheatre.com/23-24-psychogeographies-project/

Sounds a bit like an expanded version of our NCAS Skeptours!


May NCAS Event
Zelda Gilbert, Professor Emerita of Psychology at Woodbury University, will present "The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories."  Concepts such as existential, epistemic and socio-psychological motivations will be defined and applied to various conspiracy theories, providing the audience with the tools to do their own analyses. Audience members will then be invited to create and evaluate their own conspiracy theories.  Saturday, May 4 at 1:30 PM ET at Arlington Central Library's Barbara M. Donnellan Auditorium, also streamed live on the NCASVideo YouTube channel.


April PhACT Lecture
Our skeptical neighbors to the north, the Philadelphia Association for Critical Thinking (PhACT), will host their next online event on Saturday, April 20 at 2 PM ET.  Skeptical Inquirer columnist Rob Palmer ("The Well-Known Skeptic") will present "What's the Harm of Psychics?"  Event details at http://www.phact.org/meetings.php.


April Bay Area Skeptics Lecture
The [San Francisco] Bay Area Skeptics will host their next online event on Thursday, April 11 at 10:30 PM ET.  Dave Farina, a science communicator and generalist best known for his YouTube channel, "Professor Dave Explains," will present "The Birth of the Science Communicator."  In this current era of internet-borne disinformation and science denial pandemonium, science communication has emerged as a vibrant and painfully necessary field. How do we help people know what is true?  This will be livestreamed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVf7OYX2nJQ


Torn From Today's Headlines
By Scott Snell
"60 Minutes" Focuses Again on "Havana Syndrome" Weapon Hypothesis
The March 31, 2024 edition of the CBS News TV program "60 Minutes" presented a segment entitled, "Targeting Americans," their fourth report on the topic of "Havana Syndrome" since 2019.  Producers Oriana De Granados and Michael Rey, and correspondent Scott Pelley, led their viewers through a series of assertions that a sonic or microwave weapon has injured diplomatic and intelligence service employees from the US working abroad or, in some cases, in the Washington, DC area.  Viewers received no hint of any viable alternate explanations.

On the other hand, the Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Havana_syndrome) and Skeptical Inquirer article https://skepticalinquirer.org/2023/08/the-rise-and-fall-of-havana-syndrome/ provide information about the psychological hypothesis.

Generally it's difficult for viewers to assess the journalistic quality of a professional news program, but there was a remarkable exception during the recent "Targeting Americans" segment.  In one of the interviews, Pelley provided a photo of the "attacker suspect" to a syndrome victim.  She responded, "It absolutely does [look like the person outside my home when I was consumed by a piercing sound]."

For some reason, Pelley and his production team didn't instead show the victim a collection of photos of different people (including one of the suspect), and ask the victim to select the best-matching one.  That would've added credibility to the interviewee, and to their report as well.

Perhaps this was their one mistake?  Or their second mistake...after omitting alternate explanations?  At this point, does the report look like the result of careful, intelligent research?

References:
"Targeting Americans" from March 31, 2024...

"60 Minutes Overtime," also from March 31, 2024:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uNRpw6DWN0M


More Videos from CSICon 2023
Center for Inquiry has recently posted "Penn & Teller in Conversation with Richard Wiseman" on its YouTube site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMGqNgpAl1c

Director of McGill University’s "Office for Science and Society," Joe Schwarcz, presented "Getting the Chemistry Right": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C2i_AhomjOE

Also recently added was "Here Come the Creationists...Again" by Eugenie Scott, the former executive director of the National Center for Science Education and the current president of the Bay Area Skeptics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCKNUgPNBQ4


NCAS Membership
At its September 20, 2023 meeting, the NCAS Board of Directors approved a change in membership classifications, effective October 1.  Formerly in two classifications, Single and Double, membership now comprises one or two individuals at the same home address.  In addition to simplifying transactions for the NCAS treasurer, this represents a per-person reduction in membership costs.  The former Single membership cost now covers up to two people.  Consider adding a 2nd person in your household to your NCAS membership at no extra cost!  Both will be able to vote separately in the annual NCAS board of directors election.  Send an email to ncas@ncas.org to add a 2nd person to your membership.  We hope to add members, and of course a student or other young person is always welcome for the future of skepticism.  Also see https://www.ncas.org/p/join-ncas.html.


Shadow Light
Some members and contacts of NCAS receive a postal notification of this and every new monthly Shadow of a Doubt.  The Shadow Light postcard announces the monthly lecture and highlights of the electronic Shadow of a Doubt, which is available online at ncas.org/p/shadow.html.  NCAS thereby reduces Shadow production and postage costs.  To further reduce costs, members and contacts can opt out of postal notification altogether, while continuing to receive Shadow of a Doubt via e-mail.  To opt out, send us an e-mail at ncas@ncas.org.


Time to Renew?
Be sure to check your renewal date above your postal address on the Shadow Light postcard. Send any queries to ncas@ncas.org.  Use the online membership form to renew.
https://www.ncas.org/p/shadow.html