EP 177: Why You Hate Psychology - Media Bias and Misunderstandings about How Science Works




Psychology in Everyday Life: The Psych Files show

Summary: In this follow-up to episode 176 I discuss two more reasons why I believe some people either don't like or just distrust psychology: 1) the belief that it is not a science, and 2) the belief - created by the media - that psychologists make a lot of money for giving out common sense advice. I hope you'll see that psychology is not unlike other sciences in that we study something extremely complex and yes, sometimes our findings are contradictory and they change over time. Also, the media focuses - as usual - on only the most unlikely behavior of psychologists (like having sex with patients) or portraying them as having messed up personal lives. Let's find out the truth (well, at least from one psychologist's perspective).