/sci/ - Science & Math

cool story bro. i hope you enjoy your life in the USA. visit the western world some time.

>>4102377
>USA not in the western world

>>4102390
>2011
>the western world

>>4102390

uh... so you don't own a map? or a history book? and you don't know how to google?

>>4102397
In the contemporary religious and cultural meaning, the term Western world refers to the countries of Europe (specifically, Western Europe) as well as countries of western European colonial origin in the New World (i.e. the Americas and Australasia), such as the United States of America, Brazil, Mexico, Canada, Australia, Argentina, etc

Well, technically, they did have good reason to congratulate her. Pseudo-medicine really is an incredibly lucrative field.

I don't believe in Reiki, but once my ex-girlfriend tried it on me when I was hungover and it worked. True-story.

Just sayin.

>>4102413
That's what shits me. There are people out there stupid and desperate enough to try anything. She's going to be REIKIng it in.

>>4102425
>Inb4 301 posts and 6 images omitted

>>4102370
>>4102425
didn't know what Reiki was and looked it up.
http://www.5min.com/Video/How-a-Reiki-Healing-Session-Works-142080531

I was extremely saddened when she added Reiki to every thing as a modifier, used it as a verb, or personified it.

>>4102425
I give you a 3/10 because... it will derail.

>>4102447
reminds me of that Spirit Science bullshit

By the way, here's one of my favorite bullshit medical treatments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=dW11y4gO-dI#t=98s

>>4102481
All of those comments.... wtf

>>4102370
reiki healing is a potentially viable job opportunity in this economy.

You realize theres a high correlation between pseudoscience belief and poverty?

You must be one of those useless BA degree holders.

Ever notice that most people into all that pseudo-science bullshit are women.

Oh god I have the tuning fork video open in another tab and I just heard "its based on science, there are so many studies." I cringed so hard.

>>4102522
Did you know most people hate placebos despite there being valid medical evidence of their efficacy?

>>4102544
Maybe because they're unethical and generally not as potent as a real intervention.

>>4102522

no. i haven't. maybe you'd like to go get some evidence and come back when you can make substantiated claims?

>>4102553
but the placebo is getting more effective over time. inappropriate application of the trend means that at some point placebos will always be more effective than any medicine.

>>4102553
Depends on the matter of degrees.

Find me how many pseudo sciences claim to cure aids or cancer to those that claim to relieve pain.

>>4102567

>mfw real medicine is also affected by the placebo effect.

pic related

>>4102579

>inb4 water poisoning

>>4102567
That's incoherent bullshit.

>>4102558
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/ad/ad343.pdf

It really is a fact that women are much more likely to accept pseudoscientific claims than men, at least as far as alt med is concerned. This isn't supposed to imply anything. I'm just saying it's a fact.

>>4102570
I don't know what you mean by "matter of degrees", or what you're getting at with your request. Please clarify.

>>4102579
i am skeptical of this...

>>4102578
whats yfw nocebos counter that efficacy in non-placebos?

>>4102593

that's not what that article says. it says that women are more likely to use alternative medicine than men. (doesn't say by what percent, can not know how statistically significant.) it also says that prayer is considered alternative medicine.

though alternative medicine and prayer could be defined as part of "pseudo-scientific bullshit" neither of those represent the entirety of human logic-fail stupidity.

>>4102390
> that feel when americans are so stupid they don't even understand when you're insulting them

>>4102579
Wait, I would drink his fucking garbage.

There's fucking nothing in this.

But of course they would poison it beforehand, so that moots the point.

>>4102624
>that's not what that article says.
Yeah, it's what it *substantiates*, though, which is what you had requested.

>(doesn't say by what percent, can not know how statistically significant.)
Uhm, it does, actually. See Table 4.

>neither of those represent the entirety of human logic-fail stupidity.
Which is completely irrelevant, since this has been specifically about medical pseudoscience.

>>4102650

the percent i was referring to was the percent difference in women that had used alternative medicine from men that had used it. table 4 says nothing about this, only total sample usage and error ( no breakdown by sample characteristics.)

this also brings up the point that the article doesn't say anything about the prevalence of belief, only the use of alternative medicine. considering that people are often willing to try something that they don't think will work "on the off chance that it does" this article can not be used to substantiate that women are more likely to believe in alternative medicines, only that they use them. i could see a case that the two are strongly correlated, but this article still doesn't say what you want it to.

also, you didn't say alternative medicine bullshit, you just said pseudo scientific bullshit. if you meant only alternative medicine bullshit, i am willing to believe you wish to clarify your statement. is that what you wish to do?

>>4102706
>somebody makes an ancedotal statement
>get all uppity about it
>somebody posts a study supporting the anecdotal statement
>continue to get all uppity

Get the sand out of your vagina woman.

>>4102728
lol. you're awesome. yes, clearly you have won the argument now. fuck thinking.

>>4102579

>>4102746
Not the person you were arguing with. Making an observation.

>>4102706
>the percent i was referring to was the percent difference in women that had used alternative medicine from men that had used it.
I don't understand your objection here. Table 4 shows the difference between male and female users of a variety of alternative interventions, and female users outweigh the males in all categories.

>considering that people are often willing to try something that they don't think will work "on the off chance that it does" this article can not be used to substantiate that women are more likely to believe in alternative medicines, only that they use them.
Give me some research into the exact likelihood of someone resorting to alt med without actually believing in its efficacy, and then I might accept this as a valid objection.

>i could see a case that the two are strongly correlated, but this article still doesn't say what you want it to.
I "wanted" it to say that there's a correlation between being female and using alt med, and that's exactly what it does say. Plus, this is far from the only study of this sort; just the first one I could find a complete PDF of. I've never come across even a single piece of statistical research into the usage of alt med that demonstrated male dominance. Just do a pubmed search on "gender" + "alternative medicine" or "complementary medicine". The results are pretty clear.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16911901
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20044334
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21849145

So, yeah, if you want to insist that there's no substantiation for the claim that women are more prone to falling victim to crap med, go ahead, but then you're simply in denial.

FIELD TOO LONG, YAY

>>4102889
THE REST

>also, you didn't say alternative medicine bullshit
I never extended this beyond alt med, although I am fairly convinced that shit like "The Secret" and "What the BLEEP Do We Know?" is predominantly bought into by women as well, if only for the fact that Oprah is a prime promoter of this stuff. Just to clarify, these are my only posts on the subject:
>>4102593
>>4102650