Pseudoscience’s Often Appeals to Emotion refers to vulnerable people with emotional connections that will trump their rational thoughts.

Connection:

This picture captures the conflict that one’s “heart” (emotional connections) will have on their brain, emotions getting too high will put your thoughts and actions at risk. Your emotions can fog/cloud your judgement making yourself prone to distorted view of truth not knowing what to believe if someone is telling you their side of the story but making it sound like they did nothing wrong after they did do something wrong to you, you are more likely to forgive them.

Pseudoscience’s Convinces by Faith and Belief refers to people believing in spiritual beings, faith, and mystical connections that is not based on scientific evidence and cannot be explained by science.

Connection:

It is to be believed that ghosts are supposedly spiritual beings after one has passed and is unable to move on to the afterlife. There is no scientific method for this research since one cannot claim what happens when one passes or if there is even an afterlife. Many people to believe that ghosts are real but there is no reputable source for the existence of ghosts.

Pseudoscience’s Money is Often Involved refers to money being involved in peoples lives that come in different ways always making money the motive, for example losing life savings or making money.

Connection:

One way money is involved could be bribery. People will do what they think is best in some situations when in the long run it could result in an even worse outcome then the first scenario you were given. People will make a bribery act in different ways, one being to keep people from spreading the knowledge they have gathered, stopping the person from debunking another.

Pseudoscience’s Deliberately Creates Mystery refers to the appeal of mystery that cannot be explained such as mystical or spiritual agents that invite our need for excitement.

Connection:

The Bermuda Triangle is an object that deliberately creates mystery since it is a defined region that suggests unusual disappearances in the area. This opens the idea that some force makes those disappearances and unnatural occurrences happen. There have been ways people have been able to express demonstratable validity one of which is by sending ships out to see if they will return, this is not a realistic scientific method that will produce accurate results since the ocean is an unpredictable place, only 5% of it has been discovered. Making the results unusable since the ships could have been lost, capsized, faultily made, or other issues.

Red flags Appeal to Authority refers to the argument that people that hold credentials (academics), fame, or reputation indicates that the person is always correct no matter the topic.

Connection:

. When seeing a person with a lab coat and a doctorate means that they are always right. The critical thinking process will help the understanding of what appeal to authority can do

Define claim: everyone who has a doctorate is always right.

Recognize bias: doctors are also human; they are allowed to make mistakes. Doctors are very smart and save lives everyday but does not mean that they do not make mistakes.

Evaluate Source: Is The Doctor Always Right? | The Healthcare Guys

9 it is relatively up to date (2019), but a lot of medical changes have been made since the website has happened. The company is known to give out information and advice about such things that doctors would know (causes, symptoms, and solutions) since it is a doctorate website. They are trying to help people understand that they are here to help you with your help and to answer any questions on it you may have. No red flags.

they understand that the doctors are very smart and may know things that the ordinary person may not know but they can still make mistakes

Evaluate Evidence:

10 it is stating that not everyone is right, some people can be wrong sometimes even if they are doctors. It is a document that states different experiences that might have happened to someone if their doctor was wrong and what they could be wrong about, but it was not an anecdote. This is an opinion of a individual company stating very good points that people should lookout for. No red flags. The results can be reproduced by talking to different people asking about their experiences with a healthcare professional such as a doctor and sharing their experiences bad or good. The scientific method has not been followed but some could argue that it could since it is doctors writing this document.

Summary Conclusion:

The claim is false since there are many ways that a doctor could be wrong with their diagnosis such as, botching a surgery, incorrect prescriptions, and misdiagnosis’. Insinuating that all people can make mistakes and to seek action if it does not feel right.

Red flags Ancient Wisdom refers to believing that ancients had a better understanding of our universe and bodies than modern day science and people following what the ancients said or did.

Connection:

In the Victorian era it was to be believed that people will cover mirrors after someone has passed so that the mourning would not have the soul of the deceased trapped in it and then removing the fabric after the mourning period is over. In the present only a select few still do this technique including different groups of Romans will cover the mirror since they believe what the ancestors before them say even though there is no scientific method to debunk this method of mourning.  

Red flags Confirmation Bias refers to favoring information that aligns with a person’s preexisting beliefs or ideas rather than seeking out more knowledge challenging their ideas leading to flawed judgment.

Connection:

Confirmation bias is to seek out things that only prove your answer more instead of challenging it during critical thinking and seeking out the most relevant, reliable answer known. This could lead to a distorted view of truth since you will be set on the knowledge that you believe is to be true and not the actual truth as if you are seeking advice from yourself on matters and not broadening your knowledge. Not everyone has the same knowledge or ideas so it is good to communicate with others when seeing information instead of Confirmation Bias which does not make another person any smarter than they already are, stunting their mental growth.

Red flags Proof by Verbosity refers to believing a person by one’s expression on their ideas, thoughts verbally, or is in the public eye more than anyone else convincing people that they have done thorough research on the topic when they have not persuading the audience or confusing them.

Connection:

Lebron has won four championships, has won NBA MVP four times, all-time leading scoring in 2023, and has become the first NBA player to score 40,000 points in 2024. For this example, I chose Lebron James since if he were to tell someone that you are allowed to hit someone from behind in hockey (which is not allowed) some people may believe him since he is very accomplished in basketball but what does know about hockey? He might know a lot of things but just because he in accomplished and has strong knowledge in one thing does not mean that he has a strong knowledge in the other, we should treat claims as such with skepticism.

Red flags Ideological Support refers to people claiming that it is it is morally ethical/politically correct to follow their claims even though they are not proven by science.

Connection:

Authority figures often will convince people such as employees that their ideas are right and there is no other way. This can be shown when at a organisation, managers say that you have to individualize your breaks having them 15 mins 30 mins and another 15 mins during an 8 hour shifting saying that one is not allowed to have a 1 hour break. It all adds up to the same amount of time but believe their reason is best without any scientific method or facts to back their answer.  

Reasons for Belief Ideology refers to a set of ideas that are biased to one’s beliefs and decisions.

Connection:

This photo refers to one person alone since that is what ideology means one person’s beliefs and decisions that are biased. This process is unique since it does not have group think to elaborate on their own beliefs and adopt new ones. It is strictly their own, not anyone else’s which is why I chose the photo, of a singular person. This may stunt their knowledge not seeking out others’ opinions and sticking to their own or it can also relate poorly to themselves. Being biased to favoring the experiences that you have already known over the new ones around you, if you know that there is a quicker way to get someone but think that your way is better when running late you can be late to school or an important meeting.

Reasons for Belief Emotional Connections refers to our emotions playing a role on what to believe and what not to, blurring reason resulting in irrational actions and thoughts.

Connection:

If you are extremely happy and someone tells you something it may lighten a load whereas if you were to be angry/upset/sad you may act irrationally since you process the same thing but in different ways when you are feeling differently. Negative emotions when trying to think can make you assume the worse case scenario, remember negative scenarios, or blaming yourself when known of these are good outcomes nor are they healthy. Emptions can distort the truth clouding your judgment since the scientifically the limbic system (apart of the thalamus of the brain) can overwhelm the prefrontal cortex (frontal lobe) impairing your rational thinking, this can relate to being impaired by alcohol or drugs, acting irrationally, clouding your thoughts, ideas, sight, hearing, it can all have negative affects on someone. If you were to be in a good mood and someone tells you something that is absurd you are more challenge the idea since you are acting normally whereas if you were in a negative mood you may just agree to it even though it is wrong.

Reasons for Belief Unexplained refers to experiencing and seeing unexplained actions, words, or thoughts we try to explain it to ourselves to try to understand it better.

Connection:

LACK OF PRACTICE

Big Foot is to be believed a mythical creature. People have stated what they saw to be true but it could also be as if they saw something that they do not see on an ordinary day and tried to make sense of it, telling people that it is a creature that lurks in the woods. People are struggling to make rational choices and thoughts when it comes to seeing things that do not make sense to them due to a lack of practice outside of their comfort zone. Big Foot could have just been a tall person wearing a sweatsuit with longer hair and facial hair, if someone were to see this with poor eyesight they may be inclined to think the same thing. Big Foot is only process people use to take what they do not know nor understand and make it into something that they do, because seeing a hair beast in the woods is better than seeing a hairy tall man to some people.