Blinded by science?

Chris Atherton

@finiteattention

Blinded by science?

Chris Atherton

@finiteattention

neurobollocks

As a researcher for many years into new methods of rehabilitating people with neurological damage … I have been thrilled by the promise of new technologies such as sophisticated brain scanning to help us to understand the processes of recovery and (more importantly) suggest treatments … In contrast, I am utterly dismayed by the claims made on behalf of neuroscience in areas outside those in which it has any kind of explanatory power; by the neuro-hype that is threatening to discredit its real achievements.

Raymond Tallis, Neurotrash

Psychology and neuroscience are

increasingly informing UX

“neuro–” is the Wikipedia of UX:

anyone can add anything and say it’s true

folk psychology:

“men can’t multi-task”

folk neuroscience*:

“the creative half of your brain”

* Vaughan Bell

my credentials

psychology

neuroscience

visual perception

.

All the research I cited in my PhD

(about 200 papers)

all you need

— all anyone needs —

is critical thinking skills.

“Sometimes it’s easy to forget that we only use between 10 and 20% of our brains.”

econsultancy.com

econsultancy.com

econsultancy.com

econsultancy.com

FRONT BACK

PHRENOLOGY LOL

in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?”  A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have

shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same.  Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.

The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence.  That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the  amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain).  All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.

intentionalworkplace.com

in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?”  A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have

shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same.  Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.

The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence.  That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the  amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain).  All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.

intentionalworkplace.com

emotions are contagious

negative emotions might be more contagious

negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]

in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?”  A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have

shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same.  Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.

The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence.  That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the  amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain).  All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.

intentionalworkplace.com

negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]

where is the evidence that emotional contagion is associated with

activity in [area of the brain]?

in a recent seminar, one manager asked, “So, if we know this about the brain, what are the implications of this knowledge in terms of the entire way we do performance reviews?”  A great question in light of this valuable information!1 Emotional Contagion is Real – Studies in the past decade have

shown that emotions can be “infectious.” The moods of others, especially those in positions of power, can have a real and lasting effect on individuals and groups. Toxic bosses, bully environments and aggressive cultures can “breed” more of the same.  Leaders play an important role in their ability to influence the spread of certain types of emotions over others.

The evidence shows that while all emotions can be contagious, “negative” emotions have greater power to influence.  That makes sense because when we are negatively “triggered” emotionally, the  amygdala in the brain’s limbic system is activated and the “fight or flight” system kicks in, draining energy from the pre-frontal cortex (the “reasoning” part of the brain).  All of this can happen unconsciously, unless we develop the tools to bring it into awareness and mitigate the responses.

intentionalworkplace.com

negative emotions are associated with activity in [area of the brain]

is there any emotion for which we should expect no activity in any part of the brain?

cum hoc, ergo propter hoc

Our brains have two sides. The right side is emotional and moody. The left side is focused on dexterity, facts and hard data. When you show up to give a presentation, people want to use both parts of their brain.

— Seth Godin, Really Bad PowerPoint

1. Our brains have two sides.

2. The right side is emotional and moody.

3. The left side is focused on dexterity, facts and hard data.

4. When you show up to give a presentation, people want to use both parts of their brain.

1. People respond to emotional as well as factual arguments.

2. The emotional and factual centres of the brain are in opposite hemispheres.

3. There is evidence that arguments which increase activity in both hemispheres are more persuasive.

How I’d structure this:

why am I quite so pissed off about this?

“lets you look at the brain triggers”

uxmatters.com

Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.

uxmatters.com

Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.

CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR

uxmatters.com

Observing the customer journey, it is possible to analyze what is going on for users at a cognitive level and recognize opportunities for improvement. The brain comprises three major parts: the brain stem, or croc brain; the limbic system, or emotional brain; and the neocortex, or logical brain.

RANDOM NEUROANATOMY LESSON

uxmatters.com

blog.usabilla.com

blog.usabilla.com

this matters, because we look like idiots

why are we such fools for neurobollocks?

we screw up because we care

Title that wouldn’t be out of place in a tabloid newspaper

Story about usability or UX or some aspect of software-related human experience that turns out to have no supporting evidence in it from brain studies of any kind, though it may mention the brain several times.

Site that should know better

OBLIGATORY BUT WHOLLY UNRELATED BRAIN PIC

Title that wouldn’t be out of place in a tabloid newspaper

Story about usability or UX or some aspect of software-related human experience that turns out to have no supporting evidence in it from brain studies of any kind, though it may mention the brain several times.

Site that should know better

OBLIGATORY BUT WHOLLY UNRELATED BRAIN PIC

story more

likely to

be

rated as e

xhibiting

good

scientific

reasoning

McCabe & Castel, 2008

http

://fli

ckr.c

om/p

hoto

s/qu

inn/

4252

1551

72

“the curse of knowledge”

heathbrothers.com

Brain scans indicate that this “curse” happens because of the frontal lobe brain circuitry known to be involved in self-knowledge. Subjects have trouble switching their point of view to consider what someone else might know, mistakenly projecting their own knowledge onto others.

The researchers claim that this “curse” happens because subjects make more mistakes when they have to judge the knowledge of others. People are much better at judging what they themselves know.

irrelevant brain jargon brain-free explanation

scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily

Skolnick Weisberg et al, 2008

“the seductive allure of neuroscience explanations”

“the seductive allure of ‘seductive allure’”

Farah & Hooke, 2008

scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily

significant difference

digression:

the significance of significance

xkcd.com/882

xkcd.com/882

OMG

xkcd.com/882

xkcd.com/882

p-values:

probability that the result you’re so excited about is merely due to chance

significance at the p < .05 level:

1 in 20 chance of seeing a significant resulteven if there’s nothing really going on

significance at the p < .01 level:

1 in 100 chance of seeing a significant resulteven if there’s nothing really going on

how to get a significant result at the p < .05 level:

test for significance 20 times

p-values can help us interpret behavioural science data.

useit.comwhat’s going on here?

useit.com

- what is being measured?

- what is ‘most viewed’? duration? repeat views?

- what do the different colours connote?

- is there a meaningful difference between red,

yellow and blue areas?

- if so, how are we defining ‘meaningful’?

what’s going on here?

The human brain, it is said, is the most complex object in the known universe. That a part of it “lights up” on an fMRI scan does not mean the rest is inactive; nor is it obvious what any such lighting-up indicates; nor is it straightforward to infer general lessons about life from experiments conducted under highly artificial conditions. Nor do we have the faintest clue about the biggest mystery of all – how does a lump of wet grey matter produce the conscious experience you are having right now, reading this paragraph? How come the brain gives rise to the mind? No one knows.

Steven Poole — Your brain on pseudoscience

false coloured suprathreshold areas superimposed on an anatomical scan

map is thresholded at acceptable p-level

neurons in areas of brain that are working hardest spend all their oxygen

circulation overcompensates with more O2

scanner measures oxygenated haemoglobin

haemoglobin O2 level map reconstructed

red voxels

blue voxelsless ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task

more ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task)

red voxels

blue voxelsless ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task

more ‘activity’ during some task than at rest or during a different task)

in fMRI, we can measure ~100,000 voxels per brain

… lots of significance tests

blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic

So is it all just hooey and woo?

crispian.netPeriodic table of irrational nonsense

4.bp.blogspot.com

@thebrainlady

@vaughanbell

@neuro_skeptic

ReadingBaloney Detection Kithttp://www.brainpickings.org/index.php/2012/03/16/baloney-detection-kit/

Bell, V (2012) The trouble with brain scans. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2012/may/27/brain-scans-flaws-vaughan-bell

Bell, V (2013): Our brains, and how they're not as simple as we think. http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/mar/03/brain-not-simple-folk-neuroscience

Bennet et al (2010): Neural Correlates of Interspecies Perspective Taking in the Post-Mortem Atlantic Salmon: An Argument For Proper Multiple Comparisons Correction (in the awesomely-named Journal of Unexpected and Serendipitous Results) http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/neuroskeptic/2009/09/16/fmri-gets-slap-in-the-face-with-a-dead-fish/#.UVJJzltN56N

Farah, MJ & Hooke, CJ (2012). The seductive allure of ‘seductive allure’. http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~mfarah/pdfs/The%20seductive%20allure%20of%20_seductive%20allure_%20revised.pdf (Shorter, more digestible take on this at http://neurocritic.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/the-not-so-seductive-allure-of-colorful_7.html)

McCabe, DP, and Castel, AD (2008). Seeing is believing: the effect of brain images on judgements of scientific reasoning. http://www.imed.jussieu.fr/en/enseignement/Dossier%2520articles/article4.pdf

Poole, S. (2012). Your brain on pseudoscience: the rise of popular neurobollocks. http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2012/09/your-brain-pseudoscience

Tallis, R (2009). Neurotrash. http://rationalist.org.uk/articles/2172/neurotrash

Weisberg et al (2008): The seductive allure of neuroscience explanations. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2778755/ (Shorter, more digestible version at http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2008/03/13/when-we-see-a-brain-light-up-o/)