At the beginning of every year, self?professed psychics make claims about what is going to occur in the upcoming year. These predictions range from the ridiculous (a major celebrity will be cloned) to the mundane (there will be new medical breakthroughs) to the vague?enough?to?always?be?true (Obama will have a harder time this year than last).
With nearly 20 percent of this year gone and nothing but the meekest of evidence supporting any number of the millions of predictions made, why does anyone in today's society believe in psychic abilities?
There are two main reasons: confirmation bias and the law of large numbers. These two pervasive forms of sloppy thinking in conjunction with "cold reading" techniques lead many people to be deceived by psychic claims.
People tend to notice and look for evidence that supports their beliefs while ignoring and undervaluing all evidence held against that position. Conservative Republicans only reading conservative Republican blogs or watching conservative television (hence the joke of "Fixed News") would be an example of a confirmation bias.
People also fail to realize how present coincidence is in our daily lives. Most of us are shocked to meet someone who has the same birthday as us, but in a football stadium of 50,000 fans, almost everyone is likely to share a birthday with roughly 135 other people. Even things with million?to?one odds should happen thousands of times a day on a planet of billions of people.
To test these claims, the magician James "The Amazing" Randi has a $1,000,000 prize for any person who can in any way prove the validity of their paranormal claims under controlled circumstances. Many psychics have tried and failed. But there are a few big name psychics such as John Edward, Rosemary Altea and Sylvia Browne who absolutely refuse to be tested in any way.
Many psychics claim they don't need the money, which is about as weak as any excuse could be for not taking the test, passing it and taking the million dollars. If they don't need the money, why don't they just pass the test and give it all to charity?
The reason is clear, unless the above has been too subtle. All psychics are deluded, frauds, cheats or all of the above. There is no such thing as psychic abilities. There is no positive, scientific evidence whatsoever to prove the validity of psychic claims (even after the $20 million worth of research conducted by the CIA in the '70s and '80s). There are no psychics, only liars.
For any of you who think you're psychic and want to prove me wrong I pose to you Barry Belmont's $100 challenge: I have a sealed envelope on my desk with a number written on it, large and legible. Use any psychic technique to figure out what it is. If you get it right, you get $100 cash, and I will admit I am wrong.
Tufts students are greeted early on in their time on the Hill by an extensive sexual assault prevention program, from the blue light telephones introduced on campus tours, to presentations during orientation week, followed by the array of sexual crime prevention posters displayed in virtually every dorm on campus. However, incidents of sexual assault, unfortunately, do occur. The university maintains an official policy on sexual assault that allows a victim to pursue four different courses of action to be taken against his or her assailant: mediation between the victim and perpetrator, a campus stay?away order, a university hearing or the accused person leaving the university. These consequences have varying degrees of disciplinary action associated with them - the campus stay?away order, for example, is not a disciplinary measure.
Concerned Tufts students, specifically members of the student group Students Active for Ending Rape and members of the Tufts Community Union Senate, are taking issue with this policy, criticizing its weaknesses and calling it unfair and confusing. Such issues include the leniency of the mediation option, the subjectivity that administrators may succumb to when making important decisions regarding sexual assault and the fact that victims may not be accompanied to a university hearing by an attorney.
The university is currently reviewing the sexual assault policy, a measure that the Daily applauds. While Tufts works to amend the policy, it is important to recognize that sexual assault is a problem that is dealt with all over the world, including at seemingly picturesque college campuses. A recent Department of Justice survey examining 10 New England schools including Tufts, UMass Amherst and Northeastern, found that 240 cases of alleged sexual assault were reported between 2003 and 2008. These statistics likely underrepresent the number of sexual assaults that actually occurred, as the Justice Department statistics were only drawn from years that the schools received grants; the numbers also do not include the tremendous amount of sexual assault incidents that are not reported at all. Tufts, not alone among its peers, appears to have been stuck in the mindset that just because a sexual assault occurs on campus and the victim chooses to keep the investigation and disciplinary actions within the context of the university that appropriately strict measures do not need to be taken.
The Boston Globe last week pointed out that Tufts has yet to expel, require counseling or suspend a student accused of sexual assault, even though the school received a large grant in 1999 from the Justice Department's Office of Violence Against Women. There are, however, inherent difficulties in collecting data on sexual assault cases from universities. Tufts does not necessarily report to the Justice Department every action taken with regard to sexual assault. In addition, schools generally will not report incidents of sexual assault without a victim's consent; Tufts will not inform the Justice Department of interventions or measures taken by the university against the offender. However, information regarding cases of sexual assault should be available at Tufts. Students and faculty must know that their school will take every measure possible to ensure their safety. Factors like the reputation of the school should be negligible when the safety of a member of the university community is at stake.
As administrators work to amend the university's policy, it should be kept in mind that reporting sexual assault may be the hardest thing someone ever has to do - victims often feel that they are to blame or are ashamed. It is difficult to tell a friend, much less pursue judicial action within the university, and even more of a stretch to seek legal action. For this reason, many sexual assault cases will remain within the jurisdiction of the university. The university should therefore make it its responsibility to ensure that the proper action is taken. Sexual assault is never simply a university problem; it is a serious legal infraction and should be treated as such.
