When watching out for pseudoscience, one of the things to look for is whether money is involved. This is when a claim is being made that is often not reliable, and the main red flag is that there is financial incentive by the source in making you believe the claim.

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One area of pseudoscience is promoting the idea that one can improve their eyesight by getting rid of their glasses. This has been promoted through anecdotal experiences, but is not supported by the scientific method. When we evaulate the source, we might believe this claim because it comes from an opthalmologist. However, proponents of this pseudoscience are often engaging in selling books and courses on how to do special "eye exercises". This financial incentive is a red flag. Other expects such as opthalmologists that do not have financial incentive, say that there is no evidence to support this.

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The red flag Appeal to Emotion is when arguments that should be supported by evidence are instead focused on making statements that manipulate feelings and evoke a sense of fear or urgency in people.

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The image shows the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Ideas of the apocalypse appeal to emotion by threatening indirect and future harm to an individual or their family. We can apply the critical thinking process to this. The claim is that the apocalypse will come and there is some salvation you can obtain. The second step, Recognize Bias, we admit that people are scared by doomsday claims and want to find salvation where it may exist. Finally, we evaluate the source of the claim. The source of doomsday claims could be associated with an organization and be looking to profit off the paranoia by making you join their religious organization or become a follower.

Meaningless scientific language is meant to fool your audience into thinking you have a good point by inventing or misrepresenting scientific terminology.

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The image shows a vaccine. Anti-vaccine arguments usually uses scientific terminology in false or meaningless ways. This comes about from skepticism in the benefit or trustworthiness of vaccines as a technology. In the Critical Thinking Process, we can start by defining the claim. A main claim some people say that vaccines alter your DNA or inject microchips into your body. We need to recognize the bias that most do not know the science and try to make their own scientific terminology to justify their beliefs. These internet celebrities primarily spread anecdotes and hearsay about the impact of vaccines without consulting scientists. Many scientists try to debunk anti-vaccine statements because of their popularity. https://scienceornot.net/2012/05/25/technobabble-and-tenuous-terminology-the-use-of-pseudo-scientific-language/https://www.bbc.com/news/54893437

One of the red flags for pseudoscience is whether results cannot be reproduced. This is when we can be skeptical towards claims that lack the ability for us to implement the scientific method upon, meaning we have no choice but to take their word for it.

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One example of such a claim is the belief that aliens built the Pyramids in Egypt. This is a bizarre belief that cannot be reproduced, nor can we verify it as we do not know much about how the pyramids were built. Because we cannot apply the scientific method to directly verify or falsify this claim, this falls under pseudoscience.

Confusing correlation with causation is when individuals observe an event that occurs with another event, and make a causative connection between two events even if they might not be related or causative.

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A big example of this red flag is when we observe individuals that associate vaccines with autism. This is a claim that can easily be debunked by reputable sources such as physicians, public health experts, and scientists. However, people who believe this are often citing anecdotal instances. Vaccines are recommended for children around the same time when signs of autism can present in children, which leads people to believe the two events are connected when they are not. This is a classic example of causation and correlation being confused. The posted link is an example of a medical journal explaining why this is pseudoscientific.

All natural refers to claims that certain products or things are better for us by using terminology such as it being "natural", "clean" or "no chemicals".

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One marketing strategy lately has been seen in skincare brands that attempt to leverage "all natural" terminology to promote their sales. This is a claim that should be met with immediate skepticism because the source attempts to profit off of us, meaning they have financial incentive. When you look at reputable sources, such as health professionals (as seen in the video), they make it clear that everything is a "chemical", and that things being "all natural" are not necessarily good or have any validity.

The appeal to ancient wisdom is a red flag that involves claims that an action or thing should be trusted because it has been done for generations or a long time.

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Birthwort was a plant that was promoted as a form of herbal medicine because it was recommended by Theophrastus, dating back to 300 BCE. However, it is now known that this plant is poisonous to humans. One of the mistakes with appealing to ancient wisdom is giving into group-think, where we all collectively start to think things regardless of the evidence supporting the claim.

The appeal to authority red flag is when you reference someone’s authority when it is not relevant. This can be for your authority, like if you are a teacher speaking about something that you are not educated in. It can also be appealing to the lack of authority someone else may have as making them automatically wrong. It can also be lying about having an authority, such as by saying that scientists agree with you, when none do.

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The link shows an example of appeals to authority, attributing a quote to winston churchhil. The connection to this image is that parents do have an authority over their child but not one that gives them special knowledge. If a kid were to tell another kid about a fact by saying their parents said it was a fact, it would be an appeal to authority. A parent is not necessarily a reputable source. Also, it is easy for a kid to be biased for authority they are familiar with, like their parents. For the other person this is said to, it is also hard to evaluate the source without knowing the parent. Like with other examples of appealing to authority, without knowing the person, you do not know how valid their claim is. This is why utilizing the scientific method and trusting reputable sources is important.

Confirmation Bias is where you look for and accept information that supports what you believe but you ignore what proves you wrong or challenges your view.

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The image has an athlete shoving a person into a locker. It represents stereotypes, in this case the stereotype of the athlete being a bully to a nerd. This shows confirmation bias because of how we reinforce stereotypes. If we have a lack of exposure or practice in a situation, we can let a few experiences shape our views. Once we have our views, we will ignore what doesn’t fit what we already believe and keep the stereotype alive in our minds. Also, stereotypes are often reinforced by group-think with other people repeating the stereotype. This helps further reinforce confirmation bias by making us feel other people believe what we do, and making the stereotype feel more real.

Simplicity is when we believe something because it is simple to understand. People may readily disbelieve more complicated facts, even if they are supported by evidence, in favour of a simpler explanation.

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When COVID-19 hit, scientists were busy figuring out exactly what causes the virus to spread and the origin of the virus. In reality, viruses are extremely complicated, and can mutate and evolve naturally. However, it was simpler for people to believe someone "created it" in a laboratory, and so simplicity was a guiding force in why people began to believe this. It was much easier for them to understand a malicious actor being the source, then having to understand complicated biology. Individuals here held a distorted view of the truth due to this fallacy in thinking.

Ideology as a reason for belief is when you have a strong set or system of ideas that you are convinced of. These can be political, like conservativism or liberalism. It can also be specific, like faith can be a form of ideology.

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The image shows a flat earth. The flat earth is a very common conspiracy theory. The reason for belief in a flat earth is mostly because of ideology. There are no reputable sources that support belief in a flat Earth. However, there is a lot of group-think combined with a distorted view of the truth. Flat Earth groups repeat their own ideology to each other while also ignoring science. Most of it is based on anecdotal evidence or misinterpretation of natural phenomenon. There is no usage of any scientific method or consultation with scientists or other reputable sources.

Agenticity is the belief that there are invisible and abstract actors in our daily lives behind the patterns that we connect.

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The image depicts a religious photo. Religious beliefs are an example of agenticity. Characters of religion like devils, angels and Gods are all invisible actors who influence our lives. The bad patterns can be given to devils while the good patterns can be given to angels. The claim is to rationalize what happens to a way we can understand. The source is appealing to tradition and what our parents knew and believed in. It is hard to know directly the validity of the source. https://www.nature.com/articles/474446a