What Makes Pseudoscience So Dangerous?

In this episode of #AskASpaceman, I dig into the nature of pseudoscience versus science. I will discuss what characterizes #science from the outside, like jargon, technical gadgets, and advanced mathematics. These are the qualities that pseudoscience shares, but crucially pseudoscience misses the important core of science: the openness, the rigor, the rationality, the skepticism, the connectedness, and the openness that are the trademarks of scientific investigation.

I show how common beliefs like UFO hunting, homeopathy, astrology, ghost hunting, ancient aliens, and more are all examples of pseudoscience.

Finally, I give some practical tips for navigating the world of pseudoscientific beliefs and how to respond to proponents of those beliefs.


Keep those questions about space, science, astronomy, astrophysics, and cosmology coming to #AskASpaceman for COMPLETE KNOWLEDGE OF TIME AND SPACE!

00:00 Introduction
03:01 Pseudoscience as "False Science"
07:20 The Skin vs the Soul of Science
16:22 Examples of Pseudoscience
25:53 How to Spot Pseudoscience in the Wild

[justthisguyrevamp]

As a media studies student, I have to add, the methods you describe, generating claims about how the natural world functions and verifying those based on testing those claims, differs greatly from the methods used in our discipline, including interviews, ethnographic studies and close readings. And yet, I never hear those involved in pseudo sciences never about the scientific methods in the arts.

[lorenzo.bernacchioni]

Was waiting for an episode covering this topic for a long time, would love a follow up episode to address the impact of pseudoscience on our sociey.
Thank you Paul!

[OneCutSlash]

I usually do the smile and nodding as well, but a few months ago, I let my brother have it about all the nonsense he continually spouts. I just couldn't take it anymore.
I felt bad for yelling at him, but it reached a boiling point.

[UncleJPlays]

What a great video. What a great message. I hope not just millions but everyone can watch. Well done Dr. Sutter.

[countzer]

I’d like to see an episode on the anti-science rhetoric or more broadly the anti-intellectualism that some sectors of society have been propagating for decades.

[TaylorShockey]

Fantastic video. Should be required viewing for all middle school science students.

[lorenzo.bernacchioni]

I have this question in my mind: why pseudoscientific theories seem to gain audience nowadays?
My interpretation is that in the course of decades/centuries the gap to understand science is becoming bigger and bigger, so that understanding advancements in cutting edge research is hard (unless you subscribe Paul's channel)
Pseudoscience providds a convenient accessible shortcut
* don't need years of study to understand Egyptians, one afternoon of youtube videos and you're up to date with the state-of-the-art of ancient alien civilization
* you don't need instruments that cost millions of dollars to shutter atomic nuclei, you can see with your naked eyes that the earth looks flat, it means it's flat
There are other more profound sociological triggers that contribute to the success of pseudoscience, Paul, would like to hear your point of view, thank a lot for your amazing videos!

[mitk]

It can't be said better! Thank you, Paul!

[CraigPMiller]

Great video! 👍Haven’t seen you on my feed for ages. 🧐🤔

[FrancisFjordCupola]

Like you said: you have been immersed in the practice of science for decades. You have built up an intuition around it. Other people have built up their intuitions around what they heard, what works for them and what they dream about.

I think you're gonna have some mathematicians going after you, tears welling up, "am I just a tool to you?"

While I agree on the mindset part; that too is formed through all that time of immersion. There is no short-cut available. And I'm also afraid it is not a mindset that even captures all sciences. Last few years there had been several scandals with sociologists and psychologists and their research; including made-up data. Reproduction is not sexy enough, everyone wants to be the newest and shiniest.

[LordZordid]

People pretend like they know what they are talking about instead of just being honest and say, I don't know! There is no shame in that. To me it's quite exhausting to obtain truth and meaningful content from people and meanwhile dealing with all their insecurities.

[muntee]

What about physics and metaphysics?
What about how the forefathers of modern day physics decided upon the most meaningful and useful 'universal constants' that would facilitate the use of mathematical systems that are incomplete and almost certainly incorrect, if not in principle then very probably in thier determination and interpretation quality.
Basically approximations on assumptions.... And philosophy did the very best it could to get that close, just a shame the monumental levels of funding required for this advancement, along with ethical perspectives for best practices for population management, and unfortunately best practices for sustaining and perpetuating strategic business models, captured the field and quietly and subtly replaced the, "as best as we currently can prove" with, "absolutely and irrefutably true."

[MarkAllen]

Great video. It does a great job of explaining the difference between science and pseudoscience, but it didn’t explain “why pseudoscience is so dangerous“ - as the title claimed. I was expecting it to explore the consequences of people taking these pseudoscientific theories as fact and letting it shape their beliefs and actions… which can lead to negative consequences for themselves and others around them… Still, a great video. Thanks.

[normandbujold]

Regarding flat earth, why would we see the top sails first when a sail ship come up the horizon? That is a fact known for centuries….

[gillianrhodesofficial]

Really interesting topic, but this is just my opinion, the constant extra visuals and background music is quite distracting. I had to watch this by listening in a separate window. Is there anywhere with a clean simple audio version of this?

[Houdini_Bob]

for flat earthers I ask why, when you fly from New York to London you fly north east across Maine, Iceland, Greenland Scotland and down to London . . . it is called great circle steering. why would it be called great circle steering for a flat plane. on a flat plane you would just fly directly. why, when you fly at altitude, you can see earths curvature? I don't fly and your questions are stupid.
Why don't the oceans waters fall off the edge of the flat plane earth?
why don't photos of earth from space show all the continents at once? response - they're doctored

[nicholashylton]

I feel your pain. God, do I feel your pain! 😢
I have lost count of the conversations I've had online and elsewhere that made me want to cry out in frustration.

[anirudhadhote]

Hi Sir, I have a simple (may be) question, there is a room and two persons are counting some identical objects say x, one person is counting x and putting it inside a bag, the role of another person is to just watch so that there is no mistake in counting. To save the time the person watching just says some random three digit number between 700 and 800 based on his visual judgement, now the question is what are the chances of that number being the exact number matching with the actual quality of item x after they finish the counting process.

[stealthmodespecialist]

Fantastic video. Loved it all. Except I have serious question, where exactly did the Egyptians tell us “literally how they built the pyramids”?

[arvidlystnur]

I suppose it wouldn't be good science to not be able to quote my sources, but a group of scientists claimed that the universe being infinite, most likely there would be extraterrestrial life, yet the probability of life existing on the closest solar system to the earth would be unlikely, while travelling space from such solar system cannot be possible, as such isn't supported by present definitive science.