James Alcock

James E. Alcock (born 24 December 1942) is a Canadian educator.

He has been a Professor of Psychology at York University (Canada) since 1973.

Alcock is a noted critic of parapsychology and is a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

He is a member of the Editorial Board of The Skeptical Inquirer, and a frequent contributor to the magazine.

He has also been a columnist for Humanist Perspectives Magazine.

In his first television appearance, in 1974, Alcock appeared on the TVOntario magazine show, The Education of Mike McManus, in Toronto.

He sat on a panel discussing current paranormal research with a parapsychologist and a psychic healer.

When asked if he was closed-minded to the possibility of psi, Alcock responded that there is no good research out there that would change his position.

"The experiments that have been done... are filled with flaws... they just don't satisfy the canons of science. Until the parapsychologists can present evidence that satisfies the criteria of science there's nothing to investigate, there's no phenomenon there."

"The pursuit of science should be directed at seeking explanations, whatever they are, rather than searching for preferred explanations. Parapsychology is directed at finding evidence that paranormal phenomena exist, rather than at explaining the strange, anomalous experiences that people have from time to time. Parapsychologists show little interest in normal explanations for those experiences because they are committed to finding evidence of the paranormal. Their commitment is such that failures to replicate, rather than suggesting that perhaps there is "nothing there" (the null hypothesis), the failures are reinterpreted in terms of some made-up "effect."

In 1976, Alcock attended the organizing conference at which the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal was founded, and was invited to be a Fellow of CSICOP at that time.

He was appointed to the Executive Council a few years later.

He outlined the history of the modern skeptical movement as begun by CSICOP in April 1976 in Buffalo, NY.

The San Francisco Chronicle asked Alcock to comment on EVP and ghost-hunter instruments.

He suggested "several explanations for so-called voices from the dead. One theory is that the recording devices are picking up snatches of radio broadcasts. Another is called 'apophenia,' which means that people tend to perceive patterns even when there are none. If we play the same piece of tape over and over ... we maximize the opportunity for the perceptual apparatus in our brain to 'construct' voices that do not exist."

Alcock carried out a systematic review of parapsychological research involving random event generators, pointing out several methodological problems that he considered of such a serious nature that one could not have any confidence in the results and conclusions of the various studies.

Much of that research was carried out in the Princeton University Anomalies Research (PEAR) laboratory of Robert Jahn, then Dean of that university's Engineering faculty.

In addition to these serious methodological concerns, Alcock determined that if one were to remove the data related to one particular participant, the results of the study were no longer statistically significant.

Alcock's 1981 book, "Parapsychology-Science Or Magic?: A Psychological Perspective," was instrumental in transforming Professor Chris French's skeptical understanding of paranormal events and explaining unusual experiences:

I kind of fell into this trap myself...I used to be a believer, a true believer until quite well into my adulthood.

And it was reading one particular book by James Alcock, called 'Parapsychology-Science or Magic?' that made me realize there was another way of explaining all these unusual experiences, and one that actually made a lot of sense to me!

... I can turn 'round to him [James Alcock] and say, 'You are the bastard that got me to where I am today!

You've got a lot to answer for!

A long–time member of the Skeptic's Toolbox faculty, Alcock lectures at the 4-day workshop that teaches attendees critical thinking skills for their daily lives.

In 1999, a panel of skeptics named him among the two dozen most outstanding skeptics of the 20th century.

Alcock told a Register-Guard reporter who attended the 2003 conference, "Science has many voices... We encourage people to listen to scientific evidence, but how (in the case of expert testimony in American courts) do we determine who to listen to?"

And in the case of printed media, "There are lots of things published that are sheer nonsense."

Learning to evaluate evidence is why workshops like the Toolbox are important.

In May 2004, CSICOP awarded Alcock CSI's highest honor, the In Praise of Reason Award.

Alcock is also an amateur magician and is a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

In October 2004 Alcock spoke at the World Skeptics Congress in Italy.

As a member of the executive council of CFI, he addressed the opening session of the 2012 6th World Skeptic Congress in Berlin.

As of 2020, he is currently on leave from York University.

Alcock has stated that he grew up in an observant Protestant household and regularly went to Sunday school.

His mother was "very religious" and his father, though not outwardly observant, "never criticized religion".

He says that "when I started university, it was difficult, over a period of a couple of years, to give up my belief".

As a 19-year-old undergraduate, he attended a stage hypnosis show hosted by Reveen the Impossibilist.

He took part in the participant selection stage which required the volunteers to interlace their hands and was surprised that, at the hypnotist's suggestion, he could not separate his hands.

"It really freaked me out at the time. It got me really interested in hypnosis. But it's just suggestion."

Alcock was chosen as a fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association for making "a distinguished contribution to the advancement of the science or profession of psychology".