https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw Paranormal & Pseudoscience Assignment 2 en-us 2018-04-02 17:28:45 UTC 2025-12-24 04:24:44 UTC hello@padlet.com dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247879506 By: John Ibbitson &Jake Galea]]> 2018-04-02 17:32:05 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247879506 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247883847 The website attached briefly describes what a psychic detective is. They explain a psychic detective as "a regular old psychic with an added quirk". It goes on to explain that there have been no documented cases of success, but people would still believe this because of the ideology reason for belief. People that believe in the power of psychics, are usually self proclaimed psychics so therefore they have the ideology instilled in them that there are supernatural powers at work, and some individuals have access to them. Appeal to authority would be a pseudoscience red flag because it has been seen in many supernatural T.V shows and movies that law enforcement uses psychics to help solve a case. In movies this appeals to authorities, and in some cases in the real world, but it does not mean that it is accurate. This website is a wiki, so therefore it is just someones random opinion but this website i feel is very balanced as it does state that there have been no documented cases, and describes some cases that a psychic may have helped law enforcement. ]]> 2018-04-02 17:45:02 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247883847 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247903218 Ghost whisperer is a popular television series that follows the life of a Melinda Gordon who has the ability to see, and talk to ghosts, and often works as a detective to figure out what is preventing the ghosts from crossing over. This is a mainstream show and with mainstream shows people often feel connected to the show and watch it often, because of this peoples observations from the show may make them believe that supernatural powers can be real beyond this show. A pseudoscience red flag would be conformation bias, this is because people get connected to the show and try to apply principles from the show into real life, e.g. some people can see and talk to ghosts. At the end of the day Ghost Whisperer is just a television series, and the producers have never claimed that there was anything more to it. ]]> 2018-04-02 18:42:05 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247903218 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247907287 Theresa Caputo is a very popular medium in the mainstream media, she works like a psychic detective to uncover things about someones loved one that has passed. Below is a video that is making a claim that Theresa is in fact a fraud. It states that Theresa is using a "Shotgun method" firing off a bunch of ideas in hopes that one fits, in pseudoscience this is also know as the red flag of proof by verbosity, because she is saying so many different things about this person she must really be able to talk to the dead. Theresa also capitalizes on emotional contentedness, because she is talking about dead loved ones and who wouldn't want to be able to communicate with their loved one, one last time. This video is obviously made by someone who believes Theresa Caputo is a fraud, this could be due to a wrong doing by another medium towards this person. This has a lot of bias against mediums and psychics with no real proof to back it up. This person could be deploying the same tactics, that they claim Theresa is deploying. ]]> 2018-04-02 18:55:33 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247907287 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247913437 Noreen Renier is a Psychic detective, who on her website states that she has worked on over 600 unsolved cases, lectured at the FBI headquarters in Quantico, Virginia, and has several positive testimonies from people she has worked with. Noreen is using her appeal to authority as a reason for belief, but she doesn't state how many cases she worked on came out with a positive result, really there is no negativity at all, directed towards her on her website. Noreen quite clearly uses the " Unexplained" reason for belief because she cant explain what she does, and theres no proof is shes telling the truth. She uses proof by verbosity by stating facts about the work she has done to make her seem more of a catch. ]]> 2018-04-02 19:15:29 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247913437 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247917190 The Hollywood Medium is similar to Theresa Caputo in that he is a famous personality trying to uncover deceased family members and connect them with their loved ones, the only difference is that Tyler does his readings on famous people. In the video below it states that Tyler brings up facts that could be found by anyone who has access to google. Tyler capitalizes on emotional disconnectedness because he is talking about deceased loved ones. He also uses the red flag of conformation bias because he brings up things that even if there super little, the clients will make a big thing out of it if it relates at all. We have to remeber that the organization that posted this video, Nickii Swift, is a celebrity gossip organization, and is looking for views likes, ect. This organization may be biased towards Tyler in order to achieve more fame for themselves. ]]> 2018-04-02 19:28:39 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247917190 dukey1432 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247923412 This is a Youtube video produced by the Richest that looks at supposedly real cases of psychic detectives. This video appeals to those who believe in psychics as it is only saying positive things. This in the red flag of ideological support, because those that already believe will willing accept this as true.  This builds on the reason for belief of ideology, again because the target audience of this video are those that already believe in the use of psychic detectives to solve crimes and mysteries. On another note there is no way to know if these facts are actually true or if the Richest is posting this video as a click bait.]]> 2018-04-02 19:52:58 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247923412 ibbitsonjohn0 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247968041 Red Flag: Appeal to Authority- the red flag appeal to authority is very prevalent in this show because it uses its audience to and media personalities to depict the existence of psychic detectives, when there is not evidence of the psychic detectives actually doing much besides making some good guesses. All this trickery is to bring in money
Reason for Belief: Emotional connection- this is evident due to the connection the show tries to make you build towards the case, through the backstory of the people involved in the cases presented.
The motivation for the creation of such a show most likely in my mind boils down to people exploiting others belief for monetary gain. ]]> 2018-04-03 01:49:27 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247968041 ibbitsonjohn0 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247970287 Red Flag: Confusion of Correlation with Causation- This red flag fits with this case Donthe was arrested for a crime he did not commit due to a psychic detective described a man that looked like him at the scene of a crime, and security camera footage found him at the scene when police suspected the crime to take place. He was later dropped of all charges when none of the evidence held up. 
Reason for Belief: Unexplained- This is because the police could not find any other suspect for the case and so they believed the psychic detective because they could not come up with other answers them selves.
The police assumed the detective was correct due to a lack of their own evidence and thus arrested. ]]> 2018-04-03 02:04:57 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247970287 ibbitsonjohn0 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247972590 Red Flag: Ideological Support- In most of the cases presented in this website people either are predisposed to believe in psychic detectives or put their trust in them due to the family not wanting to give up on the search.
Reason for Belief: Emotional Connection- This is because all of the cases are due to someones emotions getting the best of them a calling for procedures that they would not normally ever have undertaken. I just so happens that most of the cases were solved, most likely due to the rule of big numbers. 
These cases are presented very briefly and done show much of the evidence presented in these cases and how correct the detectives were. many of the people in theses cases also seem to have many biases in favor of the detectives.]]> 2018-04-03 02:22:59 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247972590 ibbitsonjohn0 https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247976877 2018-04-03 02:55:34 UTC https://padlet.com/dukey1432/pt3cpecimhfw/wish/247976877