It's Not Even in The Top 100 Worst Psych Theories of the 1960s - True That

Cognitive pollution - ideas which are so attractive that we want them to be true when they are not. Also known as Normative Sociology.

Early in my career I read up on the Kübler-Ross model of grief as an issue related to working with high performance teams. I soon discovered that, much like the vaunted Myers-Brigg tests, it was conjured from thin air with no empirical basis. Yet, decades later, we still hear people describe the five stages of grief.

At Language Log, I came across this pleasantly meta mocking of Kübler-Ross.