Voodoo science
From Free net encyclopedia
Voodoo science, another term for pseudoscience, was popularized in the book Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, by professor and skeptic Robert L. Park.
Park uses the term voodoo science as a catch-all concept covering four categories sometimes difficult to distinguish from each other:
- pathological science, wherein genuine scientists deceive themselves
- junk science, speculative theorizing which bamboozles rather than enlightens
- pseudoscience proper, dependent on supernatural explanations
- fraudulent science, exploiting bad science for the purposes of fraud
Park, a physics professor, science administrator/lobbyist/journalist and outspoken scientific skeptic, outlines his seven warning signs that a claim may be pseudoscientific and analyzes beliefs in popular culture and the media with a skeptical eye.
Other authors have used the term, but it remains most closely associated with Park.
Park's seven warning signs:
- Discoverers make their claims directly to the popular media, rather than to fellow scientists.
- Discoverers claim that a conspiracy has tried to suppress the discovery.
- The claimed effect appears so weak that observers can hardly distinguish it from noise.
- Anecdotal evidence backs up the claim.
- True believers cite ancient traditions in support of the new claim.
- The discoverer or discoverers work in isolation from the mainstream scientific community.
- The discovery requires a change in the understanding of the fundamental laws of nature.
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References
- Park, Robert L.. Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud, Oxford University Press, 2000. (ISBN 0-19-513515-6, ISBN 0-19-514710-3)
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