Learning from the sign of the cult of the cargo

Cargo cult science - a term used by Richard Feynman in 1974 for a speech addressed to graduates of the California Institute of Technology describing a work that resembles science, but devoid of "some kind of scientific integrity, a scientific principle thinking requires total honesty. "

Speech was included in the book "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" (The Polish edition of "Mr jokes, Mr. Feynman!"), is also on many websites. Uses a comparison to the anthropology of carnal cult. Feynman warns that in order not to become a charismatic cult scientist, you should firstly avoid cheating yourself, willingly submit your own theories and the results of questions and doubts, and search for possible errors in your own theories and experiments.

It recommends the highest level of honesty, rarely seen in everyday life. He presents examples of advertising, policy and psychology illustrating deviations from honesty that are unacceptable in science. Warns "experience teaches us that truth will come to light, others repeat the same experiment will see whether you were honest or not." Physical phenomena will agree with your theory or not. And although you can become famous for a moment, you will not gain a good reputation as a scientist. You have not been careful, this is the kind of honesty, the concern is not to deceive, which is largely lacking in cargo cult science.

An example of such research is a situation in which the experimenter uses carelessly the results of another researcher's study. Since the conditions used in other studies may vary in an unknown experiment, differences in results may not be related to the variables under investigation. Other examples given by Feynman include psychology (and especially parapsychology). It also mentions another type of dishonesty, eg supporting some research to secure funding.

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