Two ‘interesting’ shows on TV earlier this week, Baby Mindreader and Mindshock: Transplanting Memories. Let me state upfront that I’m not a closed to the possibility of mysterious powers or previously undiscovered medical marvels. I don’t, however, believe we’ve seen any evidence of them and most of the people we do see on TV or in print are deluded at best or an outright scam artist at worst. Read on after the jump to see if either show changed my opinion.
Transplanting Memories had promise, perhaps there was something in the mad idea that people who received heart transplants gained some of the character traits, and even memories, of their new heart’s previous owner. Sadly extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence and they didn’t have it.
The ‘science bit’ of the show is tasked with coming up with a possible explanation for the idea and they attempt this with a good deal of hand waving about the body’s nervous system, neurons in the heart, and a bit of “throughout history all over the world the heart was considered the seat of emotions.†Hmmm, the old we used to believe it so it must be true technique, very scientific.
The statistics the show gives tells the real story here, between five to ten percent of people under go a personality shift after having a heart transplant. Well, no shit, I’d imagine it’s a pretty life changing experience. They go on to say that out of 70 people who’d had a personality shift they selected ten for further study where their new personality matched their donor, implying that the other 50 didn’t really match. So around one or two percent of transplant patients appear to gain some of their donors personality or memories. Still significant, if true, but it’s pretty clear that the stories on the show are mostly coincidence, combined with a good deal of confirmation bias and the strong possibility that patients are told slightly more about their donor than they remember.
My real problem with the show is that the other side isn’t really put across. People watch for a bit of entertainment and come out of it thinking there’s something in the idea. It’s bad enough when people see the show and think that’s how science works: a few unrelated facts, an anecdote or two and, bang, new theory and traditional science rocked to it’s core.
It’s bad but at least it’s not giving out advice on bringing up children. I’d had a vague hope that Baby Mindreader was going to be the setup for a big reveal in the last show, where we discover that it’s all a con and are shown how it’s done. Sadly Derek Ogilvie, doesn’t appear to be Derren Brown in disguise and has apparently been at this game for a while. I’m not falling for it for a second. I’d toss out a standard “well let’s see him perform in a decently constructed test” but he doesn’t even look that impressive with the magic of recorded television on his side. After the first five minutes everything he says is in the realm of the fairly obvious given what he’s seen of the family and their home. He tops it off by having a go at the parents for not taking his advice seriously, possibly the most sensible thing they do all show, giving him a perfect excuse if nothing he suggested makes any difference.
The show is done in a “give people the information, show them the results and let them make up their own mind†style. All well and good and I hope most people come to the same conclusion I did, but I fear people will come away from the show thinking he’s the real deal if there’s any sign of improvement in the kids.
Without giving any other perspective in the show and with the editing clearly helping the impression of psychic powers, many people will be convinced, and these will be the people shelling out for his book and paying for his consultations. For the sake of the babies he’s claiming to help I hope he’s a child psychologist pretending to be a psychic, rather than just making shit up as he goes along.