Stuart Vyse is an American
psychologist
A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the pre ...
, teacher, speaker and author who specializes in belief in superstitions and critical thinking. He is frequently invited as a speaker and interviewed by the media as an expert on superstitious behavior. His book ''Believing in Magic: The Psychology of Superstition'' won the
American Psychological Association
The American Psychological Association (APA) is the largest scientific and professional organization of psychologists in the United States, with over 133,000 members, including scientists, educators, clinicians, consultants, and students. It ha ...
's William James Book Award.
Education and teaching
Vyse earned his B.A. and M.A. in English at
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
Southern Illinois University (SIU or SIUC) is a public research university in Carbondale, Illinois. Founded in 1869, SIU is the oldest and flagship campus of the Southern Illinois University system. The university enrolls students from all 50 st ...
. He went on to an M.A. and a Ph.D. in psychology at the
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...
. He taught at
Connecticut College
Connecticut College (Conn College or Conn) is a private liberal arts college in New London, Connecticut. It is a residential, four-year undergraduate institution with nearly all of its approximately 1,815 students living on campus. The college w ...
from 1987 to 2015, where he has been Joanne Toor Cummings '50 Professor. He also taught at
Providence College
Providence College is a private Catholic university in Providence, Rhode Island. Founded in 1917 by the Dominican Order and the local diocese, it offers 47 undergraduate majors and 17 graduate programs.
It requires all of its undergraduat ...
and the
University of Rhode Island
The University of Rhode Island (URI) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Kingston, Rhode Island, United States. It is the flagship public research as well as the land-grant university of the state of Rhode Isla ...
. He mentions that living near the campus of the
University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (U of I, Illinois, University of Illinois, or UIUC) is a public land-grant research university in Illinois in the twin cities of Champaign and Urbana. It is the flagship institution of the Univers ...
, where his mother was completing a college degree, probably spurred his interest in academia.
Vyse has served on the editorial board of ''
The Analysis of Verbal Behavior'', ''
The Behavior Analyst'' and ''
The Psychological Record
''The Psychological Record'' is a quarterly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering behavior analysis. It was established in 1937 by Jacob Robert Kantor, with B.F. Skinner serving as founding editor of the journal's experimental department. It i ...
''. He has been on the editorial board of
Skeptic Magazine since 1997, and since 2015 he has written the “Behavior & Belief” column for
Skeptical Inquirer
''Skeptical Inquirer'' is a bimonthly American general-audience magazine published by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI) with the subtitle: ''The Magazine for Science and Reason''.
Mission statement and goals
Daniel Loxton, writing in 2 ...
magazine, where he is also a contributing editor. Vyse is also a contributor to a website dedicated to educating parents and others about the scientifically discredited
Facilitated Communication
Facilitated communication (FC), or supported typing, is a scientifically discredited technique that attempts to aid communication by people with autism or other communication disabilities who are non-verbal. The facilitator guides the disabled ...
technique.
He holds fellowships in two organizations: The
Association for Psychological Science
The Association for Psychological Science (APS), previously the American Psychological Society, is an international non-profit organization whose mission is to promote, protect, and advance the interests of scientifically oriented psychology in ...
and the
Committee for Skeptical Inquiry
The Committee for Skeptical Inquiry (CSI), formerly known as the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP), is a program within the US non-profit organization Center for Inquiry (CFI), which seeks to "pro ...
where he also serves on the CSI Executive Council. He cites
Carl Sagan
Carl Edward Sagan (; ; November 9, 1934December 20, 1996) was an American astronomer, planetary scientist, cosmologist, astrophysicist, astrobiologist, author, and science communicator. His best known scientific contribution is research on ex ...
and
Stephen Jay Gould
Stephen Jay Gould (; September 10, 1941 – May 20, 2002) was an American paleontologist, evolutionary biologist, and historian of science. He was one of the most influential and widely read authors of popular science of his generation. Goul ...
as influences in his role as science communicator.
[
As of 2022, Vyse has been living in ]Stonington, Connecticut
The town of Stonington is located in New London County, Connecticut in the state's southeastern corner. It includes the borough of Stonington, the villages of Pawcatuck, Lords Point, and Wequetequock, and the eastern halves of the villages of ...
for two decades, in a building that used to be called the Steamboat Hotel, a landmark of historical value in the community. His research into the building's past and its successive inhabitants became the basis of a book, which is due to be released in October, 2022.[
]
Superstition and critical thinking
Vyse is frequently sought after by the American news media to explain why people believe in superstitions and how people make financial decisions.
Vyse believes superstitions come from a need to have some measure of control over events people hope will happen, or seek to avoid. This behavior is reinforced by the tendency of the human brain to detect patterns in events, even when they're completely due to chance. That motivates people to attribute a favorable outcome to a good-luck charm, for instance. Finding a way to control the outcome of an uncertain situation brings some comfort. While this behavior may help reduce anxiety, it may also cause people to gamble excessively, to base decisions on unreliable techniques such as fortune-telling
Fortune telling is the practice of predicting information about a person's life. Melton, J. Gordon. (2008). ''The Encyclopedia of Religious Phenomena''. Visible Ink Press. pp. 115-116. The scope of fortune telling is in principle identical wi ...
or to endanger their health, for example by using homeopathy
Homeopathy or homoeopathy is a pseudoscientific system of alternative medicine. It was conceived in 1796 by the German physician Samuel Hahnemann. Its practitioners, called homeopaths, believe that a substance that causes symptoms of a d ...
rather than actual medication.
Vyse suspects superstition may be on the rise, due to a large amount of false information circulating on the internet and insufficient critical thinking skills: "There's a willingness to accept almost anything, which is unfortunate, and promotes superstition". As a skeptic, he has been advocating for public policies based on science and has been critical of populist heads of state such as Donald Trump
Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021.
Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of P ...
and Jair Bolsonaro
Jair Messias Bolsonaro (; born 21 March 1955) is a Brazilian politician and retired military officer who has been the 38th president of Brazil since 1 January 2019. He was elected in 2018 as a member of the Social Liberal Party, which he turn ...
.
He used to teach a college-level seminar on critical thinking, logical fallacies and debate argumentation. He has been critical of medical treatments and techniques based on pseudoscience
Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience is often characterized by contradictory, exaggerated or unfalsifiable claim ...
, such as facilitated communication.
Remarking that superstitions are often passed on from parents to their children, Vyse stated that his family, who were Protestant
Protestantism is a Christian denomination, branch of Christianity that follows the theological tenets of the Reformation, Protestant Reformation, a movement that began seeking to reform the Catholic Church from within in the 16th century agai ...
, did not indulge in superstition when he was growing up and he was never superstitious himself.
Books and book chapters
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Vyse was awarded the 1999 William James Book Award by the American Psychological Association for ''Believing in Magic''.
Selected journal publications
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Other publications
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References
External links
Stuart Vyse's Researchgate profile.
Stuart Vyse's TEDx talk "A Mind at Play".
Facilitated Communication, where Vyse contributes.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Vyse, Stuart
1950 births
Living people
Critics of alternative medicine
University of Rhode Island alumni
American psychologists
Evanston, Illinois
Southern Illinois University alumni
Connecticut College people