Emily Rosa
b. 1987 · American psychologist known for scientific methodology
Emily Rosa (Loveland, Colorado, born February 6, 1987) is an American psychologist best known as the youngest person to publish research in a peer-reviewed medical journal. Her contribution lies in scientific method rather than psychological theory, and her name is tied to the critical testing of practices without empirical support.
At the age of nine, in 1996, she watched a video in which practitioners of therapeutic touch claimed they could sense a "human energy field" and manipulate it to diagnose and treat illness. She then designed a double-blind protocol, presented on a standard science fair display board, to test whether these practitioners could locate her hand without seeing it. They identified it no more often than chance would predict. The study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in 1998, concluded that there was no empirical support for the energy field or for the technique. The publication attracted wide attention, and David J. Hufford later questioned the ethics of the design. Rosa graduated in psychology from the University of Colorado Denver in 2009.
Key ideas
- Double-blind protocol: the test was designed so that neither the practitioners nor the experimenter knew in advance what result each attempt would produce.
- Testing against belief: the starting claim was checked against measurable data instead of being accepted on the word of those who practised the technique.
- Chance results: participants did not locate the hand more often than chance would predict, which left the supposed energy field without support.
- Methodological simplicity: a basic, well-controlled design can be enough to challenge a claim with clinical influence.
Curiosities
An ironic award acceptance
At the Ig Nobel ceremony at Harvard, she accepted the Award in Science Education on behalf of Dolores Krieger, who did not attend. In her sarcastic acceptance speech she thanked Krieger for not having researched the subject for two decades.
Age does not matter
George Lundberg, editor of JAMA, answered doubts about her youth with the words: "Age doesn't matter. It's good science that matters, and this is good science."
Original Filopedia text based on Wikipedia (es) and Wikipedia (en) and Wikidata.