Ad Hoc justifications provided to counter criticism
Results attract supporters initially but excitement dies down when results cannot be reproduced
Pathological science involves no dishonesty but results from a lack of understanding about subjective effects, wishful thinking, or threshold interactions
Defining characteristics of pseudoscience
Static or randomly changing ideas
Vague mechanisms to acquire understanding
Loosely connected thoughts
Lack of organized skepticism
Disregard of established results
Crackpot science
Claim of discovery that violates all scientific discovery
Cargo cult science
Type of nonsense science where scientific practices are imitated without understanding their actual nature
Open belief systems
Open to criticism and can be disapproved by testing (e.g., science)
Closed belief systems
Closed to criticism (e.g., fundamentalism religion)
