A Simple Guide to Spotting Pseudoscience

Pseudoscience is a system of explanations, methods, and assumptions that pose as science but don’t follow core scientific principles like testability and falsifiability.

Pseudoscience is different from bad science. Bad science uses scientific methods poorly (e.g., small samples, bias, overreach). It can improve with better design. Pseudoscience can never become good science because it is not science at all.

Why We Fall for Pseudoscience

We’re pattern-seeking creatures who dislike uncertainty and want control—especially when we’re in a difficult situation, such as struggling with a medical issue that’s difficult to resolve. Pseudoscience exploits this by promising simple, certain fixes for hard problems. Practitioners often speak with absolute confidence, whereas evidence-based clinicians hedge their claims and talk in probabilities, which can feel less reassuring.

Mental shortcuts strengthen the lure of pseudoscience: confirmation bias and motivated reasoning favor what we hope is true, while we tend to be more persuaded by vivid anecdotes than statistical data.

Pseudoscience Red Flags

1. Unfalsifiable Claims. If a claim can never be shown to be wrong, it isn’t scientific.

• Example: "There are spirits among us that cause sickness, but they are undetectable."

2. Reversing the Burden of Proof. "Their side hasn’t disproved it, so it must be true." In rational inquiry, the person making the claim provides the evidence. Lack of disproof is not proof.

• Example: "No one has shown that aliens didn’t visit ancient Egypt, so they did."

3. Special Pleading (Explaining Away Negative Findings). When pseudoscientific claims are refuted by evidence, excuses are made. This is called special pleading. It is a logical fallacy in which you make up an exception when your claim is shown to be false.

• Example: "My psychic reading didn’t work this time because you didn’t believe it would."

4. Cherry-Picking Data. Pseudoscience practitioners often focus on data that confirms their claims while ignoring or minimizing data that refutes them.

• Example: "A study showed water memory is real!" (A controversial study published in Nature in the 1980s did report these results. It has never been successfully replicated under controlled conditions.)

5. Misusing Science Jargon. Obscure, scientific-sounding terminology can be used in a meaningless way to confuse people who do not have a science background. Dense, technical language can sound authoritative while saying very little.

• Example: "Current treatments revert to biochemistry instead of relying on innate neurological defenses."

6. Overconfidence and Absolute Language. Science is provisional and usually hedged ("supports," "suggests," etc.). Claims that something has been proven should raise your guard.

• Example: "Our greens powder has been proven to boost brain function."

7. Failure to Use Occam’s Razor. Occam’s razor is the principle that the explanation that requires the fewest assumptions is usually correct.

• Example: "Lunar eclipses are caused by an invisible shadow object that can only be detected when it casts shadows on the moon."

8. Putting Too Much Weight on Anecdotal Evidence. Personal experiences are useful when making decisions that affect you personally (like which foods make you feel unwell), but that doesn’t mean others will be affected in the same way.

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• Example: "My friend felt better after energy healing, so it must work."

9. Resistance to Change. Scientific ideas update with new data. If a practitioner's core claims never shift despite repeated contradictions, it's a sign that they are practicing pseudoscience.

• Example: Despite being contradicted by physics and chemistry, homeopathy has been using the same strategy for centuries.

Pseudoscience and Open-Mindedness

Some worry that not accepting pseudoscientific claims is closed-minded. It isn’t. Open-mindedness means being willing to change your mind with better evidence. This is built into science: Conclusions are provisional, uncertainty is acknowledged, and claims change with new data. Pseudoscience does the opposite: It asserts certainty and resists change.

Understanding how science works and learning the red flags of pseudoscience helps you stay genuinely open-minded while being harder to mislead.

A version of this post also appears on the Critikid blog.