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Sunday, February 14, 2016

Why people fall for pseudoscience

By Sian Townson
The Guardian
Originally published January 26, 2016

Pseudoscience is everywhere – on the back of your shampoo bottle, on the ads that pop up in your Facebook feed, and most of all in the Daily Mail. Bold statements in multi-syllabic scientific jargon give the false impression that they’re supported by laboratory research and hard facts.

Magnetic wristbands improve your sporting performance, carbs make you fat, and just about everything gives you cancer.

Of course, we scientists accept that sometimes people believe things we don’t agree with. That’s fine. Science is full of people who disagree with one another . If we all thought exactly the same way, we could retire and call the status quo truth.

But when people think snake oil is backed up by science, we have to challenge that. So why is it so hard?

The article is here.