The psychology of curiosity between science and superstition, by Adrian Furnham

The terms "psychology" and "psychologist" are often used very loosely. People often confuse the psychological field with the biological field and mistake the cognitive research field for the medical therapeutic field, thus undervaluing psychology to the level of clinical guidance science. Psychology has always aimed to explain and understand behavior in order to predict it. And if it can understand "pre-behavior," it will not be difficult for it to find what to do to control this behavior. Sometimes, psychologists are invited to control issues related to the spread of deviations, theft, or alcohol addiction. Just as physics was responsible for producing nuclear energy and the nuclear bomb, psychology could be used for completely different purposes than originally intended. From here comes the following question: Are psychological research considered dangerous because it teaches clever psychologists how to control our behavior? What is surprising is that despite the great media interest in psychological issues, the general public remains very ignorant about this subject. It seems certain that they are unable to make an independent assessment of the claims about false scientific pursuits; such as studying lines, psychological surgery, the impact of advertisements on their desire to buy, and so on. People cling to many myths of popular psychology despite strong evidence of their inaccuracy or their complete opposite.