pseudoscientists
Fraudulent knowledge peddlers
Pseudoscientists are people who practice or promote pseudoscience—claims or methods that superficially resemble science but lack rigorous evidence, peer review, or reproducible results.
The term is dismissive, labeling someone as a fraud or crank rather than a legitimate researcher: Pseudoscientists have promoted everything from astrology to perpetual motion machines.
Divination by celestial positions
- phrenologySkull-bump personality assessment
- homeopathyDiluted-substance alternative medicine
- creationismDivine origin doctrine
- ufologyInvestigating unexplained aircraft reports
cryptozoology · parapsychology · intelligent design · biorhythms · graphology · numerology · ear candling · crystal healing
Choosing only supporting examples
- confirmation biasPreferring belief-supporting information
- unfalsifiableImpossible to prove wrong
- anecdotal evidenceSupport from individual accounts
- motivated reasoningBiased cognition favoring preferences
Pretenders to special knowledge
- quacksPhony doctors or duck calls
- fraudsDeceptive acts or impostors
- cranksObsessive eccentrics or rotating handles
- hoaxersThose who deceive deliberately
snake oil salesmen · crackpots · impostors · con artists · hucksters · mountebanks · faith healers · homeopaths
Those who discredit falsities
- skepticsThose who doubt claims
- peer reviewExpert evaluation before publication
- falsifiabilitySusceptibility to disproof
- replicationAct of duplicating precisely
Sagan · evidence-based · critical thinking · fact-checkers · empiricism · rationalists · reproducibility
astrology
Divination by celestial positions
- phrenologySkull-bump personality assessment
- homeopathyDiluted-substance alternative medicine
- creationismDivine origin doctrine
ufology · cryptozoology · parapsychology · intelligent design · biorhythms · graphology · numerology · ear candling · crystal healing · magnet therapy
cherry-picking
Choosing only supporting examples
- confirmation biasPreferring belief-supporting information
- unfalsifiableImpossible to prove wrong
- anecdotal evidenceSupport from individual accounts
motivated reasoning · data manipulation · testimonials · special pleading
charlatans
Pretenders to special knowledge
- quacksPhony doctors or duck calls
- fraudsDeceptive acts or impostors
- cranksObsessive eccentrics or rotating handles
hoaxers · snake oil salesmen · crackpots · impostors · con artists · hucksters · mountebanks · faith healers · homeopaths · astrologers
debunkers
Those who discredit falsities
- skepticsThose who doubt claims
- peer reviewExpert evaluation before publication
- falsifiabilitySusceptibility to disproof
Sagan · replication · evidence-based · critical thinking · fact-checkers · empiricism · rationalists · reproducibility
pseudoscientistsscientists
Systematic knowledge seekers
researchers · empiricists · Nobel laureates · experimentalists · subject matter experts
pseudoscientistsskeptics
Those who doubt claims
critical thinkers · truth-seekers · debunkers · rationalists · fact-checkers