History Main / ScullySyndrome

But don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Scully. If you think about it for more than five seconds, there's a lot that the seemingly "rational" explanation doesn't actually explain at all, or which itself requires increasingly convoluted and improbable further explanations [[VoodooShark which only poke even more holes in the logic]]. For instance, how and where does one even get enough marshmallow to make a fifty-foot marshmallow man and / or leave its remains scattered over the streets of New York City? How and where does one make said marshmallow man, and hide it away from everyone until the absolute right moment? How do you get it to move and act convincingly? How do you get it to move ''at all'', for that matter? How do the Ghostbusters set up their "light show" at the building without anyone noticing? The monster steps on a church at one point -- how do you stage that? In fact, the opening of the portal creates earthquakes, lightning storms and unseasonal instantaneous storm clouds that block out the sun -- how could the Ghostbusters create earthquakes, control the weather and turn day into night? How does one spread enough hallucinogens to dose an an entire city without anyone noticing, and then manage to ensure that everyone has the same hallucination at the same time -- which is also the time you need them to hallucinate? When did the Ghostbusters wire the apartment building to blow, including the apartments of several residents? And ultimately, even if you could do all of this, it would all take a lot of effort, and you'd probably need a lot of people to help you do it, all of whom will have to have some kind of motivation to keep quiet -- such as as a lot of money. The Ghostbusters are just four guys -- ''how did they manage to do this all by themselves without involving anyone else?''

As a hypothetical example, take the climax of the film ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'', which involves [[ItMakesSenseInContext an ancient evil God from another dimension, which has taken on the form of a]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever fifty-foot advertising mascot made entirely out of marshmallow]], striding through the streets of Manhattan. In this form, it attacks the roof of an apartment building in full view of the public in an attempt to open a portal to another dimension and destroy the world, before itself being vaporized in a massive fiery explosion that covers an entire city block in liquid marshmallow. That is all, admittedly, a fairly difficult set of events to believe in, and if AgentScully were investigating it, she might explain this as all being just a big hoax. The titular Ghostbusters merely staged the marshmallow man and used a combination of a fancy light show and hallucinogenic substances to fool the credulous people below into believing they were witnessing a supernatural event. Which actually makes sense on the surface...

But don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Scully. If you think about it for more than five seconds, there's a lot that the seemingly "rational" explanation doesn't actually explain at all, or which itself requires increasingly convoluted and improbable further explanations [[VoodooShark which only poke even more holes in the logic]]. For instance, how and where does one even get enough marshmallow to make a fifty-foot marshmallow man? How and where does one make said marshmallow man, and hide it away from everyone until the absolute right moment? How do you get it to move and act convincingly? How do you get it to move ''at all'', for that matter? How do the Ghostbusters set up their "light show" at the building without anyone noticing? The monster steps on a church at one point -- how do you stage that? In fact, the opening of the portal creates earthquakes, lightning storms and unseasonal instantaneous storm clouds that block out the sun -- how could the Ghostbusters create earthquakes, control the weather and turn day into night? How does one spread enough hallucinogens to dose an an entire city without anyone noticing, and then manage to ensure that everyone has the same hallucination at the same time -- which is also the time you need them to hallucinate? And ultimately, even if you could do all of this, it would all take a lot of effort, and you'd probably need a lot of people to help you do it, all of whom will have to have some kind of motivation to keep quiet -- such as as a lot of money. The Ghostbusters are just four guys -- ''how did they manage to do this all by themselves without involving anyone else?''

* The outright extreme example that occurs in between ''Film/{{Ghostbusters}}'' and ''Film/GhostbustersII'' (and is an important piece of the HappyEndingOverride) is explained above. The fact that the events of the first film temporarily calmed down the supernatural in New York City so the Ghostbusters couldn't find work also didn't helped any.

_->'''Mulder:''' Why is it still so hard for you to believe, even when all the evidence suggests extraordinary phenomena?\\

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one.[[note]]Occam's Razor actually states that the explanation with the fewest unknown variables is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation.[[/note]] Sufferers of Scully Syndrome aren't always wrong; many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action. Scully Syndrome is not a problem because skepticism of the supernatural and unlikely or a belief in the rational are bad in and of themselves, it is a problem because it allows someone to use rationalism as an excuse to not consider any possibilities that challenge or disprove their current beliefs or worldview. That Agent Scully doesn't automatically believe aliens did it is fine; it's when Agent Scully starts constructing equally implausible "rational" narratives rather than accept the evidence that aliens, against all odds, actually ''did'' do it that it starts to become an issue.

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one.[[note]]Occam's Razor actually states that the explanation with the fewest unknown variables is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation.[[/note]] Sufferers of Scully Syndrome aren't always wrong; many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action. The problem is not just AgentScully's skepticism by itself. It is that her skepticism leads her to automatically reject any explanation with unlikely elements in favour of a more "rational" explanation that is outright impossible, simply because she is unwilling to consider possibilities outside of her current worldview. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.

* Parodied in ''Discworld/{{Jingo}}'', when religious nut Constable Visit-the-Infidel-with-Explanatory-Pamphlets is talking about deity-invoked rains of objects to the skeptical Constable Shoe. He runs down a list, and Shoe's rebuttals get weirder and weirder, until eventually Visit mentions a "Sudden and miraculous rain of rain." Shoe replies in exactly the same sort of wording he used before: "Probably solar energy caused water to evaporate from the surface of a body of water, which then condensed into clouds that wind carried across the country, where cold air currents caused the droplets to recondense and fall as liquid water." In other words, the precise scientific explanation for rain. In the same exchange, was a "miraculous rain of elephants." When pressed, Visit concedes, "Well, it was just one elephant, but it made quite a splash."

** Many sightings of unexplained "ghost lights" (which are often thought to be UFOs, or some supernatural thing.) have been blamed on burning swamp gas. This is rather unlikely as, for one, the conditions for swamp gas to spontaneously ignite are rather unlikely to occur in nature, and two, when swamp gas has been ignited in lab experiments, it behaves nothing like how the stereotypical ghost lights work, instead just burning a blue-green color for a few seconds before burning out. This isn't to say there's no possible mundane explanation, just that "burning swamp gas" isn't it.

* Interestingly with the above on geocentrism, heliocentrism also has some of these.
** Earth's own rotation around the sun would require the same location (New York, for instance) in spring at noon to be pitch dark at the same time in fall (since it is now 180 degrees from its original position at the same rate of rotation and no tidal lock). The solution to this? The Earth has "stellar and sidereal days" due to a [[ObviousRulePatch .982 displacement of rotation]], and this explains (somehow) why the planet is never off-sync with regard to day and night.
** Also, in order to get the dimensions right for Earth to orbit the sun (rather than the other way around, which usually involves near Earth models with more more manageable dimensions), the sun has to be substantially bigger than the moon at all times of year (despite them looking the same in the sky, and able to perfectly eclipse), and must rotate at approximately 1000+ mph while orbiting at 67000 mph. This is not felt, seen, or otherwise sensed by either humans or nonliving objects (in case anyone was suggesting that living things have adapted to be used to this movement), meaning that while only about 350 mph is as strong as Earth's worst tornadoes, Earth rotates three times this without either a cabinet falling over or even much of a breeze, without anyone becoming dizzy, and without the clouds looking like they are whizzing past. And we haven't even mentioned that Earth's orbit is faster than a rocket, making such things as space travel rather difficult (since the Earth would quickly outrun anything flying away from it).

* [[FlatEarthAthiest Mothwing]] from ''Literature/WarriorCats'' tries to explain medicine cats' [[DreamingOfThingsToCome future-predicting dreams00 as just smart cats working out predictions unconsciously, though this still leaves a lot of questions - like why these dreams have such high accuracy and how leaders end up getting [[CatsHaveNineLives nine lives]] from communicating with [=StarClan=].

* "Adding epicycles" is an expression for adding ad-hoc and unreasonable complexities to a theory [[KeepMovingTheGoalposts in order to make it consistent with new observations]]. The basis of the phrase is historical attempts to make geocentrism consistent with the observed movements of the planets by proposing that they orbit around Earth in paths with inner loops or "epicycles". Heliocentrism is a much simpler explanation (however the theories first proposed for it still had many holes).

* "Adding epicycles" is an expression for adding ad-hoc and unreasonable complexities to a theory in order to make it consistent new observations. The basis of the phrase is historical attempts to make geocentrism consistent with the observed movements of the planets by proposing that they orbit around Earth in paths with inner loops or "epicycles". Heliocentrism is a much simpler explanation (however the theories first proposed for it still had many holes).

* ''Film/RedLights'': Tom Buckley is a physicist helping to expose fraudulent paranormal activities, such as mediums or performing miracle workers. [[spoiler: In the end, we discover that the strange events revolving around Silver - birds smashing into windows, electronics exploding, rooms shaking - is not Silver's doing, but Buckley's. He himself is a psychic, working to refute the frauds in order to discover another such as himself.]]

->'''Mulder:''' Why is it still so hard for you to believe, even when all the evidence suggests extraordinary phenomena?\\
'''Scully:''' Because sometimes looking for extreme possibilities makes you blind to the probable explanation right in front of you.
-->-- ''Series/TheXFiles''

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one.[[note]]Occam's Razor actually states that the explanation with the fewest unknown variables is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation.[[/note]] Sufferers of Scully Syndrome aren't always wrong; many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action. The problem is not just AgentScully's skepticism by itself. It is that her skepticism leads her to automatically reject any explanation with unlikely elements in favour of a more "rational" explanation that is outright impossible simply because she is unwilling to consider possibilities outside of her current worldview. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one.[[note]]Occam's Razor actually states that the explanation with the fewest unknown variables is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation.[[/note]] Sufferers of Scully Syndrome aren't always wrong; many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action. Contrast this trope with RefugeInAudacity. The problem is not just AgentScully's skepticism as her skepticism leading her reject any explanation with unlikely elements in favour of a more "rational" explanation that is outright impossible simply because she is unwilling to consider possibilities outside of her current worldview. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.

See also ArkhamsRazor, where the ''strangest'' answer to a problem is the correct one.

A self-applied case of WeirdnessCensor by a character. When this character attempts to offer a "rational" explanation for a supernatural situation, they end up offering an explanation that is itself so tortuous, convoluted and[=/=]or improbable that it also ceases to be rational. This explanation may draw upon things that are seemingly more plausible and 'realistic' than the supernatural explanation, but the way it puts these things together is unlikely or full of holes. The EpilepticTrees invoked by the characters -- who, ironically, are usually trying to ''debunk'' someone else's Epileptic Trees -- are so ludicrous that the viewers want to bash the character's head against the wall, all while pointing out that accepting the supernatural explanation would, in fact, be [[OccamsRazor simpler]]. The character also has a tendency to ignore any evidence of the supernatural that they might be presented with, no matter how conclusive, in favour of presenting more 'rational' explanations that are just as (if not more) lacking in supporting evidence.

A self-applied case of WeirdnessCensor by a character. When this character attempts to offer a "rational" explanation for a supernatural situation, they end up offering an explanation that is itself so tortuous, convoluted and[=/=]or improbable that it also ceases to be rational. This explanation may draw upon things that are seemingly more plausible and 'realistic' than the supernatural explanation. But the way it puts these things together is unlikely or full of holes. The EpilepticTrees invoked by the characters -- who, ironically, are usually trying to ''debunk'' someone else's Epileptic Trees -- are so ludicrous that the viewers want to bash the character's head against the wall, all while pointing out that accepting the supernatural explanation would, in fact, be [[OccamsRazor simpler]]. The character also has a tendency to ignore any evidence of the supernatural that they might be presented with, no matter how conclusive, in favour of presenting more 'rational' explanations that are just as (if not more) lacking in supporting evidence.

** Averted in ''Coprophages'' which has, for the first half of the show, Scully sitting back at home cooking up one naturalistic explanation after another for the peculiar deaths and the cockroach infestation... and being right on all counts.

A case of WeirdnessCensor wherein a character, attempting to offer a so-called "rational" explanation for a supernatural or unlikely situation, ends up offering an explanation that is itself so tortuous, convoluted and[=/=]or improbable that it also ceases to be rational. Although it may draw upon things that are seemingly more plausible and 'realistic' than the supernatural explanation, the way it puts them together is unlikely or full of holes and the EpilepticTrees invoked by the characters (who, ironically, are usually trying to ''debunk'' someone else's EpilepticTrees) so ludicrous that the viewers want to bash their heads against the wall and point out that accepting the (super)natural reality would, in fact, be [[OccamsRazor simpler]]. They also have a tendency to ignore any evidence of the supernatural that they might be presented with, no matter how conclusive, in favour of presenting more 'rational' explanations that are themselves just as (if not more) lacking in supporting evidence.

As a hypothetical example, take the climax of the film ''Film/{{Ghostbusters 1984}}'', which involves [[ItMakesSenseInContext an ancient evil God from another dimension, which has taken on the form of a]] [[AttackOfThe50FootWhatever 50-foot advertising mascot made entirely out of marshmallow]], striding through the streets of Manhattan. In this form, it attacks the roof of an apartment building in full view of the public in an attempt to open a portal to another dimension and destroy the world, before itself being vapourised in a massive fiery explosion that covers an entire city block in liquid marshmallow. That is all, admittedly, a fairly difficult set of events to believe in, and if AgentScully were investigating it she might explain this as all being just a big hoax. The titular Ghostbusters merely staged the marshmallow man and used a combination of a fancy light show and hallucinogenic substances to fool the credulous people below into believing they were witnessing a supernatural event. Which actually makes sense on the surface...

... But don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Scully. Because if you think about it for more than five seconds, there's a lot that the seemingly "rational" explanation doesn't actually explain at all, or which itself requires increasingly convoluted and improbable further explanations. For instance, how and where does one even get enough marshmallow to make a 50-foot marshmallow man? How and where does one make said marshmallow man, and hide it away from everyone until the absolute right moment? How do you get it to move and act convincingly -- or move ''at all'', for that matter? How do they set up their "light show" at the building without anyone noticing? It steps on a church at one point -- how do you stage that? In fact, the opening of the portal creates earthquakes, lightning storms and unseasonal instantaneous storm clouds that blocks out the sun -- how do the Ghostbusters create earthquakes, control the weather and ''turn day into night''? How does one spread enough hallucinogens to dose an an entire city without anyone noticing, and then manage to ensure that everyone has the same hallucination at the same time -- which is also the time you ''need'' them to hallucinate? And ultimately, even if you could do all of this it would all take a lot of effort, and you'd probably need a lot of people to help you do it (all of whom will have to have some kind of motivation to keep quiet -- such as as a lot of money), and the Ghostbusters are just four guys -- how did they manage to do this all by themselves ''without involving anyone else whatsoever''?

In short, however incredible it may seem, isn't the explanation that this is a god taking on the form of a marshmallow man to destroy the world actually the simpler, more rational and more supported-with-evidence explanation at this point?

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor[[note]] which actually states that the explanation with the fewest ''unknown variables'' is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation[[/note]] aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one. Sufferers of Scully Syndrome aren't always wrong; many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action. Contrast this trope with RefugeInAudacity. The problem is not just AgentScully's skepticism as her skepticism leading her reject any explanation with unlikely elements in favour of a more "rational" explanation that is outright impossible simply because she is unwilling to consider possibilities outside of her current worldview. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.

* Downplayed by L of ''Manga/DeathNote'' fame had the good grace to head off this sort of thing (omnipresent worldwide CIA assassins were suggested) pretty early on. Whenever alternate suggestions are brought up, he explains his reasoning for believing that is not the case. Still, he is only fully believed (and backed) by the world's leaders when he ''proves'' his theory that Kira is a serial killer somehow able to cause heart attacks from miles away.

* In ''Literature/LeftBehind''--no one except main characters ever thinks of the mass disappearances as being caused by the Rapture, even though premillennialism is a well-known theological concept. Some possible explanations are rational enough, but everyone believes the [[BigBad Antichrist's]] bizarre "nuclear warheads-electromagnetism-NegativeSpaceWedgie" theory. (Main characters, on the other hand, act as if they've [[FunctionalGenreSavvy read the book jacket]].)

:

... But don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Scully. If you think about it for more than five seconds, there's a lot that the seemingly "rational" explanation doesn't actually explain at all, or which itself requires increasingly convoluted and improbable further explanations. For instance, how and where does one even get enough marshmallow to make a 50-foot marshmallow man? How and where does one make said marshmallow man, and hide it away from everyone until the absolute right moment? How do you get it to move and act convincingly -- or move ''at all'', for that matter? How do they set up their "light show" at the building without anyone noticing? It steps on a church at one point -- how do you stage that? In fact, the opening of the portal creates earthquakes, lightning storms and unseasonal instantaneous storm clouds that blocks out the sun -- how do the Ghostbusters create earthquakes, control the weather and ''turn day into night''? How does one spread enough hallucinogens to dose an an entire city without anyone noticing, and then manage to ensure that everyone has the same hallucination at the same time -- which is also the time you ''need'' them to hallucinate? And ultimately, even if you could do all of this it would all take a lot of effort, and you'd probably need a lot of people to help you do it (all of whom will have to have some kind of motivation to keep quiet -- such as as a lot of money), and the Ghostbusters are just four guys -- how did they manage to do this all by themselves ''without involving anyone else whatsoever''?

... But don't pat yourself on the back just yet, Scully. If you think about it for more than five seconds, there's a lot that the seemingly "rational" explanation doesn't actually explain at all, or which itself requires increasingly convoluted and improbable further explanations. For instance, how and where does one even get enough marshmallow to make a 50-foot marshmallow man? How and where does one make said marshmallow man, and hide it away from everyone until the absolute right moment? How do you get it to move and act convincingly -- or move ''at all'', for that matter? How do they set up their "light show" at the building without anyone noticing? It steps on a church at one point -- how do you stage that? In fact, the opening of the portal creates earthquakes, lightning storms and unseasonal instantaneous storm clouds that blocks out the sun -- how do the Ghostbusters create earthquakes, control the weather and ''turn night into day''? How does one spread enough hallucinogens to dose an an entire city without anyone noticing, and then manage to ensure that everyone has the same hallucination at the same time -- which is also the time you ''need'' them to hallucinate? And ultimately, even if you could do all of this it would all take a lot of effort, and you'd probably need a lot of people to help you do it (all of whom will have to have some kind of motivation to keep quiet -- such as as a lot of money), and the Ghostbusters are just four guys -- how did they manage to do this all by themselves ''without involving anyone else whatsoever''?

* Happens to Cilan in ''Anime/{{Pokemon}}'' during the course of the museum episode. He kept suggesting ridiculous things to explain the mysterious circumstances, even though it becomes increasingly clear that there is a ghost, like Iris suggested. Subverted when it's revealed that they're both wrong - it was a Ghost ''Pokemon''.
** This concept was recycled later in XY, this time with a psychic pokemon. Why pokemon aren't the obvious solution is anyone's guess.

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor[[note]] which actually states that the explanation with the fewest ''unknown variables'' is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation[[/note]] aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one . Many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action precisely because they know no one would believe that they would go to such lengths. Contrast this trope with RefugeInAudacity. Sufferers of Scully Syndrome [[TropesAreTools aren't always wrong]]; the problem lies not so much in their skepticism as their skepticism leading them to believe explanations that are not just unlikely but outright ''impossible'' rather than consider that an explanation outside of their current worldview may be possible. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.

It is important to note that, the most common interpretation of OccamsRazor[[note]] which actually states that the explanation with the fewest ''unknown variables'' is usually the correct one, not just the simplest explanation[[/note]] aside, the simplest explanation isn't ''always'' the correct one . Many frauds and con-jobs have relied on people being willing to believe a simple explanation without stopping to consider that someone ''might'' actually engage in some highly improbable and unbelievable course of action precisely because they know no one would believe that they would go to such lengths. Contrast this trope with RefugeInAudacity. Sufferers of Scully Syndrome [[TropesAreTools aren't always wrong]]; the problem lies not so much in their skepticism as their skepticism leading them to believe explanations that are not just unlikely but outright ''impossible''. In other words, while AgentMulder might risk becoming too credulous and easily-fooled, thanks to this trope AgentScully risks becoming too closed-minded and inflexible.