{"id":188,"date":"2021-07-20T17:34:30","date_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:34:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/?p=188"},"modified":"2021-07-20T17:34:30","modified_gmt":"2021-07-20T17:34:30","slug":"spotting-examples-of-pseudoscience","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2021\/07\/20\/spotting-examples-of-pseudoscience\/","title":{"rendered":"Spotting Examples of Pseudoscience"},"content":{"rendered":"

This chapter emphasizes the importance of helping students to think critically, including by alerting them to these ten warning signs of pseudoscientific assertions:
\n\t\t<\/span><\/p>\n

Lack of falsifiability and overuse of ad hoc<\/em> hypotheses\n<\/p>\n

Lack of self-correction\n<\/p>\n

Emphasis on confirmation\n<\/p>\n

Evasion of peer review\n<\/p>\n

Overreliance on testimonial and anecdotal evidence\n<\/p>\n

Absence of connectivity\n<\/p>\n

Extraordinary claims\n<\/p>\n

Ad antequitem<\/em> fallacy (an appeal to tradition as an argument for validity)\n<\/p>\n

Use of hypertechnical language\n<\/p>\n

Absence of boundary conditions\n<\/p>\n

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<\/em>, 50<\/em>(1), 7-36.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-188","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-rmstats"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcjttF-32","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":408,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2026\/04\/26\/the-myth-of-learning-styles\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":0},"title":"The Myth of Learning Styles","author":"dbernstein","date":"April 26, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The 15-minute video at this link debunks the idea of so-called learning styles, shows that they are actually just preferences, and presents informal and formal evidence for a lack of relationship between these styles and learning outcomes. https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=rhgwIhB58PA","rel":"","context":"In "Learning"","block_context":{"text":"Learning","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/learning\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.youtube.com\/vi\/rhgwIhB58PA\/0.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":148,"url":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/2020\/09\/13\/the-sleepwalking-killer\/","url_meta":{"origin":188,"position":1},"title":"The Sleepwalking Killer","author":"dbernstein","date":"September 13, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"A Canadian man named Kenneth Parks began suffering insomnia in his 20s. On the night of May 23, 1987, he got out of bed, drove 14 miles to his in-laws' house, killed his mother in law and injured his father-in-law with a tire iron and a knife. After the incident,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Consciousness"","block_context":{"text":"Consciousness","link":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/category\/consciousness\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=188"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":189,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/188\/revisions\/189"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/psychexamples.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}