Addressing the “pseudo” in pseudoscience: a pilot study of the Cognitive Bias Correction intervention

We live in a post-truth era where misinformation is prevalent and the demarcation between scientific evidence and pseudoscience has become more ambiguous. Pseudoscience leverages the epistemic and cultural authority of science. For people who are more prone to cognitive biases, pseudoscience can appear as accurate as empirical science. This study explored whether a Cognitive Bias Correction (CBC) program could modify a person’s thinking style and reduce cognitive bias. Individuals who were more likely to endorse pseudoscience had an intuitive thinking style and showed poorer ability to integrate evidence. Those exposed to the CBC intervention became less willing to accept implausible hypotheses and showed an overall tendency to better integrate evidence on the BADE task. These findings are consistent with the growing evidence that misbeliefs are linked to biased thinking styles, and that psychoeducational interventions targeting these biases may be effective in overcoming misinformation.