Publication detail

We test the diagnostic validity of manual muscle testing (MMT). The MMT is an alternative-medicine technique used to assess the suitability of natural remedies for minor medical ailments. The technique involves a trained tester gauging a patient's muscle resistance while the patient holds a candidate supplement close to the body, and supplements are then recommended on the basis of between-trial changes in muscle resistance. MMT is widely used despite the lack of a known underlying physical mechanism. In a pre-registered study, we evaluate the ability of practitioners to reliably rank supplements in order of suitability (i.e., in terms of their positive effect on perceived muscle resistance). We provide details of a custom analysis in which we quantify the evidence for competing accounts. The data are overwhelmingly more consistent with the supposition that the rankings are random than with any competing account.

@article{mccullen_etal:preprint:kinesiology,
    title   = {{C}hance level performance in expert diagnoses with applied kinesiology},
    author  = {McCullen, Jennifer R. and Baribault, Beth and Vandekerckhove, Joachim},
    year    = {preprint},
    journal = {PsyArXiv}
}