This Language Log post talks about a fascinating study involving novices led astray by rubbish neuroscience. Bryan Kaplan summarizes:
Researchers first told respondents about a psychological puzzle known as "the curse of knowledge." It then asked respondents to choose between alternative explanations for the "curse." The novelty of the study is that some explanations contained irrelevant talk about "brain scans" and "the frontal lobe."
Punchline: irrelevant neuroscience persuades novices and neuroscience students, but not actual neuroscientists. No wonder irrelevant neuroscience shows up so often on t.v.
Language Log, by the way, is an excellent blog for the linguistics geek within us all.