Psychology

Here are some common myths that are widely believed, but simply don’t stand up when put to the test. You may not agree that these are myths, but that’s normal. We tend to believe what we want to believe and what we intuitively feel should be true. I’d rather go with the evidence and the following are some beliefs that I am convinced are myths.

A Texan shoots at the side of a barn and then draws a target around the holes and claims he is a sharpshooter. This is the humorous description of the Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy. When you find find a clump or cluster of something in a sea of randomness and you draw your target around the cluster you are doing the same thing. Clusters are normal and expected in the real world. When a cancer cluster is found in a neighborhood, people start looking for explanations in power lines and chemical plants. They are doing little more than drawing targets around holes in a Texas barn.