This chapter emphasizes the importance of helping students to think critically, including by alerting them to these ten warning signs of pseudoscientific assertions:

Lack of falsifiability and overuse of ad hoc hypotheses

Lack of self-correction

Emphasis on confirmation

Evasion of peer review

Overreliance on testimonial and anecdotal evidence

Absence of connectivity

Extraordinary claims

Ad antequitem fallacy (an appeal to tradition as an argument for validity)

Use of hypertechnical language

Absence of boundary conditions

Source: Lilienfeld, S. O., Ammirati, R., & David, M. (2012). Distinguishing science from pseudoscience in school psychology: Science and scientific thinking as safeguards against human error. Journal of School Psychology, 50(1), 7-36.