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Consciousness theory slammed as ‘pseudoscience’ — sparking uproar

Researchers publicly call out theory that they say is not well supported by science, but that gets undue attention.
  1. Mariana Lenharo
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A letter, signed by 124 scholars and posted online last week, has caused an uproar in the consciousness-research community. It argues that a prominent theory describing what makes someone or something conscious — called the integrated information theory (IIT) — should be labelled as pseudoscience. Since its publication on 15 September in the preprint repository PsyArXiv1, the letter has resulted in some researchers arguing over the label and others worrying that it will increase polarization in a field that has grappled with issues of credibility in the past.

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doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-023-02971-1

References

  1. Fleming, S. et al. Preprint at PsyArXiv https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/zsr78 (2023).

  2. Cogitate Consortium et al. Preprint at bioRxiv https://doi.org/10.1101/2023.06.23.546249 (2023).

  3. Yaron, I. et al. Nature Hum. Behav. 6, 593–604 (2022).

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