SCIE 5

• Defining characteristics of pathological science


  • Experimental effects observed close to limits of detectability
  • Magnitude of observed effect independent of postulated causes
  • Accuracy of experiments claimed to be exceptionally high
  • Claimed results imply revolutionary theoretical consequences
  • 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)