Cargo cult

Describes ritualised practices which imitate other practices superficially, but which are carried out without an understanding of their inner functions or meanings, and therefore cannot fulfil their intended functions.

“Cargo cult” is the name given to a series of cult-like rites that emerged among various isolated indigenous peoples, especially in Melanesia, after first contact with Western visitors. The latter often brought food, medicine and other goods with them - either as gifts or to pay local workers. When the visitors – and thus the goods they brought – eventually stopped showing up, the natives built simulacra of airports, harbours or radio towers in order to imitate what appeared from their understanding like ritualistic acts – such as the signalling movements of ground controllers (“marshallers”) at an airport.

However, by imitating only the superficial appearance and not the intrinsic functionality of the facilities and operations, these acts were, as one might expect, unsuccessful in bringing back the cargo deliveries.

The meaning of the concepts “cargo cult” and “simulacrum” considerably overlap. The best distinction that can be made is that the former refers primarily to patterns of behaviour or actions, while simulacra refers more to things or reified ideas and concepts.

This term refers to an imitation of scientific work that is content to imitate the outward form of science – perhaps in order to associate oneself with its reputation and gain an air of authority – without understanding or respecting its core methodology.

The most important aspect here is that, although scientific work takes place in a formal sense, it is not done with the aim of gaining knowledge, but rather to enhance one’s reputation and/or to confirm pre-determined positions.

This can be done, for example, by producing “studies” for the purpose of influencing political or social discourse. These usually try to retain at least a minimum of “scientific credibility” by imitating the outer form of academic publications in terms of typesetting and prose, with numerous footnotes, references to renowned scientists and studies in the bibliography or citations, and often complex and hard to understand statistics. Certain “cargo cult” fields even publish their own magazines, with an established internal peer review process in order to give themselves the appearance of a serious scientific discipline. One has to take a very close look to realise that this is not a generally recognised science.

It would be easy to dismiss such practices as a characteristic of pseudosciences such as homeopathy or astrology – where they are indeed prevalent – but unfortunately, tendencies towards “cargo cult” can also be found in the established scientific community, where they are generally much more subtle and much harder to recognise for outsiders.

The motivation not to take the scientific ethos (Mertonian norms) quite so strictly can be explained by Goodhart’s law alone, according to which metrics (such as the number of publications as a measure of a scientist's success) are no longer suitable as measures if they become a goal – for example, because promotion or the allocation of funds depends on it. If this creates an incentive to over-interpret, misrepresent or simply falsify research results in order to achieve the actual goal of publishing more and more sensational results, then sooner or later this is bound to happen.

Of course, none of this can be an argument for accusing scientists of fundamentally flawed practices or even dishonest motives, but it can be understood as a reminder not to be deceived by the outward appearance of a scientific publication (argument from authority) and instead to scrutinise the methods and motivations. This is especially true when a scientific publication seems to confirm one’s own preconceived notions.

• Simulacrum

• Cargo cult on Wikipedia