What is Woo...

[Nakosis]

What Is "Woo"?
You’ll see me (and skeptics in general) talking about “woo.” (Sometimes “woo woo”, but I prefer just “woo.”)

Woo is a word skeptics use as shorthand to describe pseudo-scientific and often anti-scientific ideas - ideas that are irrational and not based on evidence commensurate with the extraordinary nature of the claim. These are ideas that usually rely on magical thinking, are rarely tested to see if they are real, and are usually resistant to reason and contrary evidence.

A woo can also be a person who hold those beliefs. So you could say, for example, “homeopathy is woo” or “woos believe in homeopathy.”

Its use has been criticized because it is seen as insulting. Maybe, but its use is not fallacious if you explain why the woo belief is a woo belief. Irrational beliefs based on magical thinking should be ridiculed. Alternative terms such as “believer” don’t really cut it, in my view.

What Is "Woo"?

Is "woo" useful, needed, important?

I would say woo is beliefs which rely on supernatural thinking.

I'm just wondering is there some physiological benefit to woo of if it'd be better to avoid woo completely?

Obviously, any woo is not going to fly trying to argue against an materialist or atheist. However not everything in life is about winning an argument.

 

[David T]

What Is "Woo"?
You’ll see me (and skeptics in general) talking about “woo.” (Sometimes “woo woo”, but I prefer just “woo.”)

Woo is a word skeptics use as shorthand to describe pseudo-scientific and often anti-scientific ideas - ideas that are irrational and not based on evidence commensurate with the extraordinary nature of the claim. These are ideas that usually rely on magical thinking, are rarely tested to see if they are real, and are usually resistant to reason and contrary evidence.

A woo can also be a person who hold those beliefs. So you could say, for example, “homeopathy is woo” or “woos believe in homeopathy.”

Its use has been criticized because it is seen as insulting. Maybe, but its use is not fallacious if you explain why the woo belief is a woo belief. Irrational beliefs based on magical thinking should be ridiculed. Alternative terms such as “believer” don’t really cut it, in my view.

What Is "Woo"?

Is "woo" useful, needed, important?

I would say woo is beliefs which rely on supernatural thinking.

I'm just wondering is there some physiological benefit to woo of if it'd be better to avoid woo completely?

Obviously, any woo is not going to fly trying to argue against an materialist or atheist. However not everything in life is about winning an argument.

Depends!! I am a naturist not a naturalist. That term has taken on woo. Lots of woo going on. I believe I don't believe i am agnostic total woo

 

[atanu]

....try to gain the love of (a woman), especially with a view to marriage.

(Ha ha. This the better option).

 

[Astravalon]

I'm just wondering is there some physiological benefit to woo of if it'd be better to avoid woo completely?

I think there is psychological benefit to it. My problem is that I realize
what, out of the things I believe in, is techncially woo, so sometimes I have
a hard time implementing a suspension of disbelief long enough to benefit
from it. My skeptic side takes over in such cases and it's kind of annoying.

But yes, about the benefits: I equate applying magical thinking to certain
visualizations used in meditation. For example, the progressive relaxation
technique, whereby you tell yourself "My right leg is getting warm and
heavy" until it does seem to feel warmer and heavier than it did before.
You progress to the left leg, and on up the body to the top of the head,
until your whole body is relaxed. The body parts involved may not actually,
scientifically, be "warmer and heavier" than they were before, but the
effects of believing they are, for the purposes of relaxation, give the same
experiential result as if they really were getting "warmer and heavier".

Placebo effect, basically, but hey, the mind is a powerful thing and there's
nothing wrong with taking advantage of that (scientific) fact if it enhances
one's everyday experiences.

-

 

[Subduction Zone]

"Woo" to me is any phenomenon that tends to disappear when investigated without bias. Please note that The Amazing Randi used to go out of his way to accommodate those that he tested. A classic example was this series of tests that he ran in Australia:

He listened to his subjects possible objections ahead of time and structured the test to meet those objections. The subjects all agreed ahead of time that it was a fair test and they were sure that with their abilities they could pass. And like all believers in woo none of them changed their minds after they failed. A belief in woo continues even after the belief is demonstrated to be wrong.

 

[George-ananda]

To me, 'woo' is an insulting term used primarily by atheist-materialists for explanations that include elements beyond the physical/material realm of the universe.

I am an abashed believer in some so-called 'woo' myself, as my study of paranormal/spiritual things have convinced me of the existence of elements beyond the physical/material realm of existence.

The term 'woo' goes kind of hand-in-hand with the philosophy of scientism.

 

[Orbit]

Woo is a pejorative term used by atheists to apply to anything they can't reduce to physical materials. Sometimes it's justifiable, but sometimes it's not.

 

[Willamena]

Is "woo" useful, needed, important?

Nah. Derogatory terms are unbecoming of scientists.

 

[WalterTrull]

I often wondered what those military types in the movies were talking about with their "woo-woo's". Now I know.
"OK guys, while we're marching let's explain elements beyond the physical/material realm of the universe." : COOL!!

 

[Quintessence]

I want to respond to this thread more meaningfully, but it's hard for me to do that given the terminology being used here. I'm all for talking about cultural diversity, whether it's different mythic narratives or philosophical worldviews. But boxing huge swaths of human culture and experience into a derogatory term created/popularized by their detractors? Good grief. That term is on par with racist/sexist pejoratives in my book.

 

[Nakosis]

I want to respond to this thread more meaningfully, but it's hard for me to do that given the terminology being used here. I'm all for talking about cultural diversity, whether it's different mythic narratives or philosophical worldviews. But boxing huge swaths of human culture and experience into a derogatory term created/popularized by their detractors? Good grief. That term is on par with racist/sexist pejoratives in my book.

I didn't really see it as derogatory, but unfortunately, that's what it's become I suppose.

I was thinking in terms that maybe not all woo is bad.

Embrace the woo.

 

[Quintessence]

I didn't really see it as derogatory, but unfortunately, that's what it's become I suppose.

Huh. I've only ever seen the term used in a derogatory context. It's interesting that you've had a different experience with the term.

I was thinking in terms that maybe not all woo is bad.

Of course it isn't. Trouble is, labeling it with that term implies this is the case. Supposing we can work past the derogatory connotations of the term, the scientistic assumptions inherent in the definition are still problematic. Too often I see a cultural practice labeled "pseudoscience" when its practitioners never claimed what they were doing was scientific in the first place. It's akin to whining about a piece of narrative prose for not being a Ph.D. dissertation. The prose isn't supposed to be a dissertation.

 

[ChristineM]

What Is "Woo"?
You’ll see me (and skeptics in general) talking about “woo.” (Sometimes “woo woo”, but I prefer just “woo.”)

Woo is a word skeptics use as shorthand to describe pseudo-scientific and often anti-scientific ideas - ideas that are irrational and not based on evidence commensurate with the extraordinary nature of the claim. These are ideas that usually rely on magical thinking, are rarely tested to see if they are real, and are usually resistant to reason and contrary evidence.

A woo can also be a person who hold those beliefs. So you could say, for example, “homeopathy is woo” or “woos believe in homeopathy.”

Its use has been criticized because it is seen as insulting. Maybe, but its use is not fallacious if you explain why the woo belief is a woo belief. Irrational beliefs based on magical thinking should be ridiculed. Alternative terms such as “believer” don’t really cut it, in my view.

What Is "Woo"?

Is "woo" useful, needed, important?

I would say woo is beliefs which rely on supernatural thinking.

I'm just wondering is there some physiological benefit to woo of if it'd be better to avoid woo completely?

Obviously, any woo is not going to fly trying to argue against an materialist or atheist. However not everything in life is about winning an argument.

I think it's slightly derogatory in this context but when I'm threatened with hell and damnation because i won't worship someone's woo then i feel entitled to respond with "hit me with that woo"