You can easily identify pseudoscience because it tries to appear scientific. However, its claims lack evidence-based science’s repeatability, reliability, and credibility. Pseudoscience relies on claims based on anecdotes, not evidence. And it tends to exaggerate using a tiny nugget of actual science wildly.
What do I mean by repeatability, reliability, and credibility? These are the essential premises of science. And they are the opposite of pseudoscience.
Repeatability — the ability to show results from similar measurements across experiments. A group of scientists experimenting in Australia should find the same results as those doing the same experiment in Canada under the same measurement conditions.
Reliability — scientific reliability refers to the consistency of a measurement. It indicates how trustworthy the results are and whether they can be replicated using different methods and sample groups. Statistical analysis is one of the best methods to establish the reliability of data.
Credibility — the results of these measurements are then published in respected, peer-reviewed scientific and biomedical journals. Although the system of peer review is not perfect, it is one of the best methods to separate unreliable and unrepeatable data from those that aren’t.
Related on the SLP
Real science is not afraid of these three premises. Pseudoscience, on the other hand, shies away from it or even tries to employ sleight-of-hand to either complain that they can’t do this or pretend to do it.
