The Outer Limits of Belief

BOOKS

et al.

how do they come to embrace such unusual ideas? First, Clancy must dispense with the issue of whether alien abduction could possibly be a valid phenomenon. Many scientists, most notably Carl Sagan, have believed the Stuart Vyse sheer number of environments in the universe makes it possible that life has ometimes important things are found in developed elsewhere. But as unusual places. Generally, it is not conClancy points out, “It’s one sidered a wise career move for a behavthing to believe that life might ioral scientist to pursue research on ghosts, exist on other planets, and quite extrasensory perception, or communication another to believe that it is with the dead. Becoming an expert in these secretly examining your private matters may get you interviewed on cable teleparts.” Nonetheless, having convision, but it is rarely the path to academic procluded that valid abductions are motion, prestige, or professional honor. extremely unlikely, Clancy is left Fortunately, these concerns did not deter Susan with the problem of explaining Clancy (a postdoctoral fellow in psychology at how such vivid memories are Harvard University) and her colleagues from produced. trying to understand how people come to The author and her colleagues believe they have been abducted by aliens. found that both groups—those Clancy stumbled onto the alien abduction Abduction scar. Bruce May shows his shoulder, where he who had recovered memories of phenomenon while studying something else. believes aliens entered his body to experiment after they sexual abuse and those who As a psychology graduate student at Harvard, abducted him. (The 1996 photograph was taken at Rachel, believed they were abducted by she worked with a group of colleagues on Nevada, the “UFO capital of the world.”) aliens—were prone to create false recovered memories of sexual abuse, a highly memories in a laboratory test. charged and controversial issue within clinical comparison group. Here was a category of peo- When asked to memorize a group of related psychology. Childhood sexual abuse is a real ple who had memories of being kidnapped by words (“sugar,” “candy,” “sour,” and “bitter”), and very troubling concern, but when the vic- visitors from other worlds—or, in some cases, they were more likely to later say they also tim’s memory of the abuse emerges for the first believed they had been kidnapped in the remembered the target word “sweet” (which time in therapy many years later, a serious sci- absence of clear memories—and yet, the was deliberately omitted from the original list) entific and clinical dilemma results. Many Harvard research team could be fairly certain than people who did not report memories of therapists argue that traumatic events are often the kidnappings had never occurred. either alien abduction or sexual abuse. On the forgotten or repressed, which makes their sub- Furthermore, the alien abductees shared other other hand, when asked to recall their experisequent retrieval in therapy credible, but mem- similarities with people who had recovered ences with aliens, the abductees produced ory researchers have memories of sexual abuse. The majority of physiological reactions that were similar to also demonstrated abductees reported that they had been sexually those of people who had experienced verified Abducted that, under the right or in some other way physically violated by traumas. So, if the abductees had constructed How People Come conditions, many peo- their alien kidnappers. Some of them believed these memories out of the psychic ether of to Believe They Were ple can be convinced that hybrid alien-human children had resulted their imaginations, they had managed to sumKidnapped by Aliens they remember things from these unions. Furthermore, both groups mon very powerful and evocative visions. by Susan A. Clancy that never happened. had been aided by a caring person in their quest Unfortunately, there is a limit to what the Harvard University The problem for therto uncover their pasts. Memories of sexual laboratory can yield in cases like these. The Press, Cambridge, MA, apists and memory abuse were typically revealed in psychother- belief that one has been kidnapped by beings 2005. 191 pp. $22.95, researchers alike is apy, and most of the alien abductees had uncov- from another world develops gradually in the £14.95, €21.20. ISBN 0that often the validity ered their memories under hypnosis. uncontrolled spaces of everyday life, and as a 674-01879-6. of the memories canClancy chronicles her experiences in result the investigator who hopes to explain not be verified. Years Abducted: How People Come to Believe They this phenomenon must become a kind of have passed since the abuse was purported to Were Kidnapped by Aliens, a book that is a psychological detective in search of reasonhave occurred, and little evidence remains. combination of science journalism and per- able hypotheses. As Clancy gathered inforMental health professionals are often inclined sonal memoir. Clancy’s research has taken mation in her many interviews of alien to believe their clients’ memories are genuine, her to places few of us will ever visit, and she abductees, she found no shortage of plausibut because criminal charges have been brings us along to gatherings of abductees ble candidates. Most of her abductees had brought and court cases conducted on the basis and to her interviews with some of the their extraterrestrial encounters at night of recovered memories of sexual abuse, the unusual characters she encountered. while on the edges of sleep. Many reported scientific issues loom large. Naturally, this material makes for interesting feeling pinned down in their beds, unable to It occurred to Clancy and her colleagues reading, but it also helps to dispel the com- move, an experience that can be caused by that people who believed they had been mon view that these people are crackpots and sleep paralysis (a common phenomenon that abducted by aliens might represent a useful crazies. Yes, they hold weird beliefs—very results when sleep cycles become desynweird beliefs—but in the final analysis, she chronized). By the time they agreed to be concludes they are not weird people. hypnotized in an effort to better understand The reviewer is in the Department of Psychology, Box Therein lies the challenge for behavioral the strange experiences they had encoun5621, Connecticut College, New London, CT 06320, science. If these people are not mentally ill, tered, most abductees were well versed in the USA. E-mail: [email protected] PSYCHOLOGY

The Outer Limits of Belief

1280

25 NOVEMBER 2005

VOL 310

SCIENCE

Published by AAAS

www.sciencemag.org

CREDIT: MARK PETERSON/CORBIS

S

CREDIT: AARON DISKIN/SPECIMEN COURTESY MAXILLA & MANDIBLE

BOOKS ET AL. lore of alien visitation and abduction, and many had read popular books about the phenomenon, such as Whitley Strieber’s Communion (1). At its core, Abducted is a story about scientific thinking. In some respects, Clancy finds her subjects to be somewhat logical and scientific. The abductees were often aware of the alternative explanations that have been proposed for their experiences, but some of their memories were so real that alien abduction appeared to be the best fit for the data. In other respects, Clancy’s abductees failed to adopt many of the basic principles of scientific reasoning. They frequently misplaced the burden of proof, arguing there was no evidence alien abduction was not real. Most important, Clancy’s abductees did not apply the test of parsimony to their beliefs. Many people who feel temporarily paralyzed upon waking might reasonably be surprised and worried about their health, but the alien abductees appeared to have constructed a much more elaborate and unlikely explanation for this experience. Clancy is a skeptic who mounts a strong case for terrestrial rather than extraterrestrial explanations, but she does so while maintaining a steadfast compassion for her subjects. The story is told with great humor, often at the author’s expense as she finds herself in unlikely predicaments. Despite these lighter moments, Clancy never loses sight of the serious questions raised by the alien abduction phenomenon, nor does she waver in her respect for the abductees. Having concluded that these people are not dismissible as ignorant or crazy, she is left with a more unsettling truth: under the right circumstances, normal people can come to hold very bizarre beliefs. Furthermore, the imagined experience of being kidnapped by aliens, while traumatic and frightening, often seemed to provide Clancy’s abductees with a kind of spiritual meaning they had not found elsewhere. Unlike people who recover memories of sexual abuse, many alien abductees said that, given the choice, they would still want to be abducted. The history of psychological science is replete with unusual and controversial experiments that have yielded secrets of lasting value. Some of them, like Phineas Gage’s encounter with the tamping iron, were natural experiments that helped etch the limits of human behavior. Susan Clancy’s study of alien abductees is a natural experiment that explores the outer limits of human belief and serves as a useful reminder of the importance of scientific thinking. Reference 1. W. Strieber, Communion: A True Story (Beech Tree, New York, 1987).

B ROW S I N G S

The Science of False Memory. C. J. Brainerd and V. F. Reyna. Oxford University Press, Oxford, 2005. 573 pp. $79.95, £49. ISBN 0-19-515405-3. Oxford Psychology. Brainerd and Reyna offer an authoritative overview of contemporary research on “errors of commission in memory reports.”After sketching the historical roots of the field, they discuss the varied methods that have been used in studies of false memories. Their consideration of basic laboratory research emphasizes the predictive power of opponentprocesses theories.The authors pay particular attention to three areas in which the consequences of false memories can be particularly horrendous: suggestive interviewing of victims and suspects in criminal investigations, the identification of suspects by victims and witnesses, and psychotherapy. They cap their account by exploring emerging work on mathematical models, the effects of aging, and cognitive neuroscience.The book will interest the authors’ fellow memory researchers, but it will also reward anyone curious as to why people often remember events differently from how they actually happened and why some people have vivid memories of events that never happened. Human Bones. A Scientific and Pictorial Investigation. R. McNeill Alexander; photography by Aaron Diskin. Pi (Pearson Education), New York, 2005. 208 pp. $37.50, C$54.50, £26.99. ISBN 0-13147940-7. This account of skeletal anatomy, written for a popular audience, begins with a consideration of bones as living organs, which grow, are damaged, and repair themselves. Alexander then surveys the form and function of the skeletal elements that compose the skull, arms and legs, and the torso. He also discusses the effects of disease and injury. After looking at how the bones of different people differ, he summarizes the adaptations and constraints that have shaped the evolution of the human skeleton. Supplementing Alexander’s accessible prose, Diskin’s color photographs emphasize aesthetic aspects of our dry bones. The Human Bone Manual. Tim D. White and Pieter A. Folkens. Elsevier Academic, Amsterdam, 2005. 484 pp. Paper, $29.95, £19.99. ISBN 0-12-088467-4. Archaeologists, paleontologists, anthropologists, forensics workers, and anyone seeking to identify human bones will find this handbook helpful. It begins with brief overviews of procedures for discovering and retrieving skeletal remains, ethical aspects of forensic and archaeological osteology, and bone biology and variation. Other introductory chapters cover postmortem modification and anatomical terminology.The authors then turn to the anatomy, growth, and identification of every bone in the body—from the frontal in the skull to the distal foot phalanges.Their concise text is accompanied by multiple 1:1 photographs of every bone and 2:1 images of each tooth. White and Folkens conclude the book with discussions of skeletal and dental pathologies, laboratory procedures, and means of determining age, sex, stature, and ancestry. Garbage Land. On the Secret Trail of Trash. Elizabeth Royte. Little, Brown, New York, 2005. 320 pp. $24.95, C$33.95. ISBN 0-316-73826-3. Science writer Royte explores the routes wastes take after they leave her Brooklyn apartment. She follows the trails of used bottles, cans, plastic bags, old newspapers, worn clothes, discarded toys, sewage, and the like. Escorting readers along paths linking trash cans, garbage trucks, transfer stations, landfills, incinerators, and recycling centers as well as toilets, treatment tanks, and sludge depots, she introduces a collection of colorful characters. Statistics and findings from earlier books and studies reinforce her personal perspective on America’s garbage problems. Royte also incorporates self-deprecating accounts of her efforts to reuse, recycle, and compost. Despite the often humorous descriptions of the smells and sights she takes in on her tour, the volume and potential hazards of the wastes leave one rather discouraged. Nonetheless, the author may convince members of her intended audience (the general public) to take actions to reduce their “garbage footprint.”

10.1126/science.1121309

www.sciencemag.org

SCIENCE

VOL 310

Published by AAAS

25 NOVEMBER 2005

1281