COAST MYTHBUSTERS PUT FADS, FALLACIES TO TEST
GOLD Coast’s own Mythbusters are on a mission to determine fact from fiction in an increasingly filtered and photoshopped world.
When she isn’t looking for evidence at work Dr Paulina Stehlik, the Bond University researcher and self-proclaimed curious mind spends her spare time as president of a local truth busting group – the Gold Coast Skeptics.
In an era of ‘fake news’, wellness-promoting celebrities and unprecedented access to information, the group of doctors, researchers and plenty in between meet once a month to tackle a new subject or dubious claim.
“It is very grassroots for people interested in talking about evidence,” Dr Stehlik said.
The Gold Coast Skeptics have been meeting for more than 15 years but are gaining more notoriety for their targeted response to the Instagram culture of today.
The national body Australian Skeptics this year awarded blogger Sarah Stevenson their annual bent spoon award for the promotion of questionable natural health remedies via her vast network of followers.
“We have an open door policy, usually meet up for some dinner and some drinks, listen to an amazing talk, a good opportunity for the public to have a good chat with researchers and policy makers, everyone from students, to tradies, researchers,” Dr Stehlik said.
“We have an amazing concentration of world class researchers on the Gold Coast, we really are more lucky than people may realise.”
Subjects touched on this year have included evolution, snake venom, traditional Chinese medicine and even holistic dentistry.
“Skeptics are not negative people, being a skeptic is simply looking for evidence,” she said.
Dr Stehlik has taken her passion further and is part of an academic team at Bond aiming to help everyday people and researchers avoid being tricked by misleading health claims.
Recently the researcher was part of Bond’s workshop on navigating an online world where some ‘health’ companies prey on naivety and vulnerability. “What we wanted to do was teach people every day skills, on how to find credible information,” she said.
SKEPTICS ARE NOT NEGATIVE PEOPLE, BEING A SKEPTIC IS SIMPLY LOOKING FOR EVIDENCE.