Chapter 4: Further Reading

Essential Sources

Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). "The weirdest people in the world?" Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 61–83. The paper that coined "WEIRD" and documented the extreme sampling bias in behavioral science. Essential for understanding Step 4 of the toolkit.

Cohen, J. (1994). "The earth is round (p < .05)." American Psychologist, 49(12), 997–1003. A classic and very readable paper on why p-values are misunderstood and why effect sizes matter more than significance tests. Excellent background for Step 6.

Abrami, P. C., et al. (2015). "Strategies for teaching students to think critically: A meta-analysis." Review of Educational Research, 85(2), 275–314. Meta-analysis showing that explicit critical thinking instruction produces moderate positive effects. Evidence that the toolkit approach works.

Kahneman, D., Sibony, O., & Sunstein, C. R. (2021). Noise: A Flaw in Human Judgment. Little, Brown. Relevant to understanding why individual judgments (including judgments about psychology claims) are unreliable without structured frameworks.

Nielsen, J. A., et al. (2013). "An evaluation of the left-brain vs. right-brain hypothesis with resting state functional connectivity magnetic resonance imaging." PLOS ONE, 8(8), e71275. The large-scale fMRI study (N = 1,011) finding no evidence for hemispheric dominance. The key citation for the "left-brain/right-brain" debunking.

Spalding, K. L., et al. (2005). "Retrospective birth dating of cells in humans." Cell, 122(1), 133–143. The radiocarbon dating study demonstrating that most cortical neurons are as old as the individual.

Lilienfeld, S. O., Ammirati, R., & David, M. (2012). "Distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology: Science and scientific thinking as safeguards against human error." Journal of School Psychology, 50(1), 7–36. Practical framework for distinguishing scientific from pseudoscientific claims, with direct applications to evaluating pop psychology.

Goldacre, B. (2008). Bad Science. Fourth Estate. An entertaining, accessible guide to evaluating scientific claims in media, with a focus on health and psychology. Good companion reading for the toolkit.

Stanovich, K. E. (2012). How to Think Straight About Psychology (10th ed.). Pearson. A textbook-length treatment of critical thinking in psychology, covering many of the same concepts as this chapter in greater depth.

Sagan, C. (1995). The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark. Random House. The classic book on scientific thinking and the "baloney detection kit." Many of Sagan's principles align with the 9-step toolkit.

Online Resources

Google Scholar (scholar.google.com). The most accessible tool for finding original research. When applying Steps 2, 3, and 5 of the toolkit, start here.

PubMed (pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). The primary database for biomedical and behavioral science literature. Useful for finding meta-analyses and systematic reviews.

Cochrane Library (cochranelibrary.com). Systematic reviews of health and psychology interventions, using rigorous methodology to synthesize evidence. When a Cochrane review exists for a claim, it's often the most reliable source.