The Rhine Paradox: a great example of how not to conduct scientific research.

The Rhine Paradox: a great example of how not to conduct scientific research.
Joseph Rhine was a parapsychologist in the 1950’s who hypothesized that some
people had Extra-Sensory Perception.

He devised (something like) an experiment where subjects were asked to
guess 10 hidden cards — red or blue. He discovered that almost 1 in 1000 had
ESP — they were able to get all 10 right!

He told these people they had ESP and called them in for another test of the
same type. Alas, he discovered that almost all of them had lost their ESP.

What did he conclude?

He concluded that you shouldn’t tell people they have ESP; it causes them to lose it.

(aus "Data Mining")