Acclaimed psychologist Dr. Scott O. Lilienfeld will be the guest speaker for the Annual Michael Dinoff Memorial Lecture on The University of Alabama campus Friday, Nov. 15.

The topic will be “Science and Pseudoscience in Everyday Life: A Field Guide for Evaluating Extraordinary Claims.” The lecture will begin at 6 p.m. in room 208, Gordon Palmer Hall, and it is free and open to the public.

Lilienfeld will speak about how people can better navigate the confusing world of extraordinary claims, like psychics, “Bigfoot,” alternative medicine, and extrasensory perception.

“There won’t be answers, but there will be skills for everyone to avoid errors in thinking that we’re all prone to, and that can sometimes lead us to see patterns or meaning when it’s not really there,” Lilienfeld said. “With the advent of the web, there’s been an information explosion, but also a misinformation explosion. The problem is — without skills to evaluate the web — people don’t know how to sort wheat from the chaff.”

Read more about Lilienfeld and his lecture on the UA news site.

The Dinoff Memorial Lecture is given in memory of Dr. Michael Dinoff, who was a professor and director of the University’s Psychological Clinic from 1963 until his death in 1982.