Your mental health should be your priority, but you shouldn’t rely just on social media to get all your facts. Just like any other website, TikTok has its fair share of awesome and educational content that’s mixed together with utter garbage and even fake news. Ex-Soviet refugee and psychology expert Dr. Inna Kanevsky is calling out the latter in her own TikTok videos.
The psychology professor, who works at San Diego Mesa College, debunks psychology fake news over on TikTok in a blunt yet witty manner. Her videos have earned her a following of nearly a million people on the video-sharing platform. They’ve also gained popularity elsewhere as well, including on Reddit where a post about her amassed a whopping 130k upvotes in just 2 days.
Check out some of the best excerpts from Dr. Inna’s debunking videos where she roasts other psychology ‘experts’ below, upvote the ones that you thought were the peak of wit, and let us know what you think of the professor’s videos in the comments.
Bored Panda reached out to Dr. Inna and had a friendly chat with her about her viral TikTok videos and her journey into the world of psychology. “Anytime you see ‘Psychology says,’ ‘Psychologists say,’ ‘Studies show,’ and the like, without referencing specific studies or psychologists, it’s most likely to be a false, unsupported claim,” she explained to me via email.
“But it is a generally good habit to look up any statement about psychology, and not just psychology, to see what the source of that claim actually is. If it’s a blog, a Reddit thread, a press article that doesn’t cite or link sources, a ‘medical’ website that’s also not backed by research, or similar, it is unlikely to be valid.” Scroll down for the full interview!
#1
Professor: Let’s not teach people to be stalkers, please. Thank you. There is no way this a “psychology fact”. Think about it. How would we test this?
Image source: dr_inna
#2
Professor: No. This is isn’t a “psychology fact”. This is just some sexist stereotyping.
Image source: dr_inna
#3
Professor: How about three signs that you shouldn’t be talking about psychology on TikTok.
1: You are exploiting other people’s mental health for your own clout.
2: You do not provide any evidence for any of your claims.
3: You actively block people who ask you to provide evidence for your claims.
How about: please, stop. Thank you.
Image source: dr_inna
#4
Professor: Wearing black does not give you depression. There is absolutely no evidence that it does. Don’t say “according to latest science” unless there is actually some “latest science”. And the science just doesn’t support this claim. Not “soft” science, not “hard” science. No science at all
Image source: dr_inna
#5
Professor: Hips? Hips? Is this supposed to be short for “hippocampus”? Because it can’t be short for “amygdala,” right?
Image source: dr_inna
#6
TikToker: Why women’s body count actually matters to guys with the psycological studies proving that it does matter anyway
Professor: Next time you decide to justify your misogyny, please leave psychological studies out of this. There are no psychological studies that prove this BS.
Image source: dr_inna
#7
Professor: I got so excited when I saw this, because I thought the follow up was going to be “I have since learned that serotonin that’s produced in the gut is used right there in the gut to regulate intestinal movement”. Because it does not cross the blood-brain-barrier and it serves multiple functions in our body. But I guess not…
Image source: dr_inna
#8
TikToker: Psychology says that when someone is laughing and they look at you, they’re attracted to you.
Professor: Psychology says no such thing. And don’t even get me started on the one where “If you dream of someone, that means they’re in love with you”. How is that supposed to work?
Image source: dr_inna
#9
Professor: Did you know what the Barnum effect is? A lot of these supposed personality tests you see online, as well as a bunch of other things that “tell you your personality,” or pretend to work because of the Barnum effect.
Barnum Effect, also called Forer Effect, in psychology, the phenomenon that occurs when individuals believe that personality descriptions apply specifically to them (more so than to other people), despite the fact that the description is actually filled with information that applies to everyone.
Image source: dr_inna
#10
TikToker: Psychology says that if you’re over 16, you’ve probably already met your soulmate.
Professor: Psychology says no such things. Psychology doesn’t talk. But psychologists don’t say them either.
Image source: dr_inna
#11
Professor: Max, we talked about this, didn’t we? You shouldn’t say “according to science” when it isn’t. And you shouldn’t say “studies show” when there are no studies.
Image source: dr_inna
#12
TikToker: If you saw the flowers first, that means you’re meticulous, modest, and shy.
Professor: No. It does not mean anything at all like that. This is just a figure-ground illusion. There are many around like that. None of them are personality tests. Perceptual phenomena ARE NOT personality test
Image source: dr_inna
#13
TikToker: Quick way to identify someone more narcissistic or psychopathic is to look …
Professor: One quick way to know which psychology ‘professionals’ on TikTok to stay away from is when they teach you a very quick way to identify whether someone is narcissistic or psychopathic. Do you really need views this badly, doctor? This is really not something you should be teaching people.
Image source: dr_inna
#14
TikToker: You can change the way you look and heal yourself from disease with your thoughts and it’s been scientifically proven.
Professor: No. It is not “scientifically proven,” for two reasons. One is that science does not “prove” things. In science, we support theories with evidence that we obtain from testing our hypotheses and we do not actually “prove” things because the next study may show that your theory was, in fact, incorrect, and needs changing. So, no, scientists do not say “scientifically proven”. And epigenetics does not work the way you think. What you’re describing is magic, not epigenetics. Epigenetics[processes] can change your genes depending on the environment but it’s not going to have effects that you claim and it has not been shown, in any studies to have the kind of effect that you claim. And placebo effect? it’s not quite relevant to what you’re describing. You really don’t understand science, huh?
Image source: dr_inna
#15
Professor: This is your regularly scheduled reminder that PERCEPTUAL PHENOMENA are not PERSONALITY TESTS. These are figure-ground illusions, they are not personality tests. They just say things about perception.
Image source: dr_inna
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