I would just call that an example of folk psychology. Note that I can take your example, think up a bunch of experiments like Eliezer did, and argue that it’s now science. (This is done; people look for statistical correlations between violent videogames and aggressive behavior. But you can come up with the equivalent of Eliezer’s eye tracking experiments; just measure physiological correlates of heightened aggression while you have boys play with toy guns.) I think that would be crappy science.
Rolf Nelson,
I would just call that an example of folk psychology. Note that I can take your example, think up a bunch of experiments like Eliezer did, and argue that it’s now science. (This is done; people look for statistical correlations between violent videogames and aggressive behavior. But you can come up with the equivalent of Eliezer’s eye tracking experiments; just measure physiological correlates of heightened aggression while you have boys play with toy guns.) I think that would be crappy science.