Scott Lilienfeld facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Scott O. Lilienfeld
Lilienfeld at CSICon 2012
Born	December 23, 1960 New York City, U.S.
Died	September 30, 2020(2020-09-30) (aged 59) Atlanta, Georgia, U.S.
Nationality	American
Alma mater	University of Minnesota
Occupation	professor, psychologist
Notable work	50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology

Scott O. Lilienfeld (December 23, 1960 – September 30, 2020) was a smart and important professor of psychology at Emory University. He strongly believed in using scientific evidence in psychology. He wanted to make sure that treatments and ideas in psychology were based on real facts, not just guesses.

Lilienfeld was famous for his books like 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology and Brainwashed. These books looked at common ideas about psychology that people believed, and sometimes showed that they were not true. His work was featured in big newspapers and magazines like The New York Times and Scientific American. He also appeared on TV shows like 20/20 and CNN.

Early Life and Education

Scott O. Lilienfeld was born on December 23, 1960, in Queens, New York. When he was growing up, he was very interested in paleontology (studying dinosaurs and ancient life) and astronomy (studying stars and space).

However, after taking some classes in high school and college, he became fascinated by psychology. He once said that he "fell in love with the mysteries of the internal world — the human mind." This means he found the human mind even more interesting than the outside world.

Lilienfeld went to Cornell University in New York. He earned his first degree in 1982. During his studies, he was very interested in how people's personalities work, especially personality disorders. He also learned about anxiety disorders and how to tell if something in psychology was real science or pseudoscience (fake science). He saw himself as someone who knew a lot about many different parts of psychology.

In 1986, he started training to become a clinical psychologist in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He finished this training in 1987. He then earned his highest degree, a doctorate in clinical psychology, from the University of Minnesota in 1990.

Teaching and Research Career

From 1990 to 1994, Scott Lilienfeld was a professor at the State University of New York. After that, he moved to Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. He became a full professor there in 2000.

In 2002, Lilienfeld started a journal called Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice. This journal helped share scientific information about mental health. He also helped edit other important science magazines like Skeptical Inquirer and Skeptic Magazine. He wrote articles for popular science magazines too, such as Scientific American Mind and Psychology Today.

Scott Lilienfeld passed away from pancreatic cancer on September 30, 2020, at his home in Atlanta. He was 59 years old. His friends and colleagues remembered him as a leading expert on fake science in psychology. They also said he was a great scholar who studied mental health problems.

Fighting Fake Science in Psychology

Conspiracy Panel at CSICon (Left to right: Ted Goertzel, Dave Thomas, Bob Blaskiewicz, and Scott O. Lilienfeld)

Scott Lilienfeld spent a lot of his career showing that some popular ideas about psychology and the brain were not true. He worked with his colleague, Sally Satel, to challenge "pop neuroscience." This is when people use brain scans, like functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to make big claims about the brain that are too simple or just wrong. They called these ideas "oversimplified neurononsense."

Their book, Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience, was even a finalist for a major book award in 2013. Lilienfeld also wrote about other ideas that he thought were not based on good science. These included:

• Eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), a therapy method.
• Using the Rorschach test (inkblot test) to diagnose mental health issues.
• Recovered-memory therapy, which tries to help people remember forgotten memories.
• The idea of microaggressions in everyday life.
• Wrong ideas about autism, like the false claim that the MMR vaccine causes autism. He pointed out that many studies have shown this is not true.
• Fad treatments like facilitated communication, which he also showed was not effective.

Lilienfeld also looked closely at mindfulness practices. He said that while there was some evidence they could help with depression and anxiety disorders, the overall evidence was "mixed."

He believed that rationality and critical thinking are not always natural for people. He thought these skills could be taught, but they might not apply to all areas of life. He saw science as a way to protect against confirmation bias. This is when people only look for information that supports what they already believe. He encouraged scientists to make sure their own beliefs didn't get in the way of their research.

After he passed away, many people remembered Lilienfeld's work. They said he was great at questioning ideas and looking for weaknesses in logic. But he always showed respect for the people who held those beliefs. He was also remembered as a passionate teacher who helped students see how psychology could help real people.

50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology

Scott Lilienfeld wrote 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior with Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, and Barry Beyerstein. In this book, they look at 50 common myths about psychology.

The book also gives readers a "myth busting kit." This kit helps people learn how to think critically. It teaches them to understand why psychological myths spread, like through word of mouth or by confusing cause and effect. It also explains how movies and media can spread wrong ideas.

Lilienfeld explained that there's a big difference between real, scientific psychology and "pop psychology." Pop psychology often comes from personal experiences, gut feelings, or common sense. While these can be powerful, they are not always good for testing scientific ideas about the brain. He noted that many self-help books are published each year because people want "quick, easy solutions" to their problems.

The book covers many interesting topics. It talks about how much of our brain power we actually use. It also looks at products like Baby Einstein and their effect on child development. Other myths include hidden messages in advertising, using hypnosis to remember things, and the meaning of dreams.

The authors chose these 50 myths based on their own experiences. They also asked many psychology professors which myths their students commonly believed. They included myths that are very popular in culture, like the polygraph (lie detector) test and the idea that "Men Are from Mars, Women Are from Venus" (meaning men and women are completely different).

Lilienfeld knew that one book might not change everyone's mind about popular myths. But he hoped that books like 50 Great Myths could at least help a little bit in changing people's beliefs.

Skepticism and Critical Thinking

Scott Lilienfeld often wrote and spoke about the importance of good communication. He believed that groups who question popular ideas (called skeptics) needed to talk more with the general public. He pointed out that when you show a myth is false, people need new, correct information to replace it. He felt that skeptics hadn't always understood this.

He suggested that skeptics should speak up more when wrong information is shared in the media. Instead of thinking "I'm just one person, I can't make a difference," Lilienfeld wanted people to speak out in their own areas of knowledge. He believed that if everyone spoke up in their field, it would eventually make a big difference.

Lilienfeld also taught his students about the "potential warning signs of pseudoscience." These are clues that an idea might be fake science, not real science. He always said that the skeptical community should demand evidence for claims. But he also reminded everyone to keep an open mind, because sometimes a claim that seems strange could turn out to be true.

Awards and Recognition

Scott Lilienfeld received many awards and honors for his important work in psychology:

• David Shakow Award for Outstanding Early Career Contributions to Clinical Psychology from the American Psychological Association Division 12 (1998)
• James McKeen Cattell Fellow Award (2013)
• Fellow of the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
• Founding Fellow of the Institute for Science in Medicine
• Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science
• The Association for Psychological Science created the Scott O. Lilienfeld APS Travel Award in his honor.

Lectures and Appearances

Scott Lilienfeld often gave talks and joined discussions at conferences. Here are some of his notable appearances:

• Skeptical Psychology panel discussion at the 17th European Skeptics Congress (September 2017).
• Can Rationality Be Taught? panel discussion at The Amaz!ng Meeting (July 2014).
• The Psychology of Pseudoscience in Medicine panel discussion at The Amaz!ng Meeting (July 2014).
• Does Psychology Get a Bad Rap? Why Many People View the Study of Human Nature as Unscientific, Quinnipiac University School of Law (March 2014).
• Speaker at CSICon 2011 (October 2011).
• Science, Nonscience, and Nonsense in Psychotherapeutic Practice, Misericordia University (March 2009).

Books by Scott O. Lilienfeld

Scott Lilienfeld wrote or edited many books during his career. Here are some of them:

• Happiness, and Well-Being: Better Living through Psychological Science with Steven J. Lynn and William T. O'Donohue (2015) ISBN: 978-1-452-20317-1
• The Encyclopedia of Clinical Psychology (editor) with Robin L. Cautin (2015) ISBN: 978-1-118-62539-2
• Brainwashed: The Seductive Appeal of Mindless Neuroscience by Sally Satel, with Scott O. Lilienfeld (2015) ISBN: 978-0-465-06291-1
• Facts and Fictions in Mental Health with Hal Arkowitz (2015) ISBN: 978-1-118-31130-1
• Psychology: Introducing Psychology: Brain, Person, Group with Robin S. Rosenberg, Stephen M. Kosslyn, Steven J. Lynn, Laura L. Namy, Nancy J. Woolf (2014) ISBN: 978-1-269-29921-3
• Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology with Steven Jay Lynn, Jeffrey M. Lohr, Carol Tavris (foreword) (2014) ISBN: 978-1-462-51789-3
• Psychology: From Inquiry to Understanding, Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology with Steven J. Lynn (2010) ISBN: 978-0-205-96118-4
• 50 Great Myths of Popular Psychology: Shattering Widespread Misconceptions about Human Behavior with Steven Jay Lynn, John Ruscio, Barry Beyerstein (2009) ISBN: 978-1-405-13112-4
• Psychological Science in the Courtroom: Consensus and Controversy (editor) with Jennifer L. Skeem and Kevin S. Douglas (2009) ISBN: 978-1-606-23251-4
• Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking with Steven J. Lynn, Laura L. Namy, Nancy J. Woolf (2009) ISBN: 978-0-205-65048-4
• Study Guide for Psychology: A Framework for Everyday Thinking with Steven J. Lynn, Laura L. Namy, Nancy J. Woolf (2009) ISBN: 978-0-205-75717-6
• Navigating the Mindfield: A Guide to Separating Science from Pseudoscience in Mental Health with John Ruscio, Steven J. Lynn (2008) ISBN: 978-1-591-02467-5
• The Great Ideas of Clinical Science: 17 Principles that Every Mental Health Professional Should Understand with William T. O'Donohue (2006) ISBN: 978-0-415-95038-1
• What's Wrong with the Rorschach? Science Confronts the Controversial Inkblot Test with James M. Wood, M. Teresa Nezworski and Howard N. Garb (2003) 978-0-787-96056-8
• Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology (editor) with Steven Jay Lynn and Jeffrey M. Lohr (2002) ISBN: 978-1-593-85070-8
• Looking into Abnormal Psychology: Contemporary Readings (1998) ISBN: 978-0-534-35416-9
• Seeing Both Sides: Classic Controversies in Abnormal Psychology (Psychology Series) (1994) ISBN: 978-0-534-25134-5

Selected Articles

Scott Lilienfeld also wrote many articles for different publications. Here are a few examples:

• "The Ethical Duty to Know: Facilitated Communication for Autism as a Tragic Case Example" (March 2016)
• "Would the world be better off without religion? A skeptic’s guide to the debate" with Rachel Ammirati (July/August 2014)
• "The 'immature teen brain' defense and the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial" with Sally Satel (May 2015)
• "The adolescent brain defense: The Tsarnaev death sentence and beyond" with Sally Satel (May 2015)
• "Science debunks fad autism theories, but that doesn't dissuade believers" (March 2015)
• "EMDR: Taking a closer look" with Hal Arkowitz (December 2007)
• "Is there really an autism epidemic?" with Hal Arkowitz (December 2007)
• "Why scientists shouldn't be surprised by the popularity of intelligent design" (May/June 2006)
• "The scientific status of projective techniques" with James M. Wood and Howard N. Garb (November 2000).