Characteristics of Pseudoscience - Essay Example

Believers might present the fact that an anecdote wherein three people in a plan met an accident but they won’t present the three lucky people who survived a fire despite the odds. Another characteristic would be Tenacity, wherein one claims to “know something because one has always known it” ( “Chapter Outline and Materials”). A person who experienced a stroke of bad luck for example due to the circumstance of number three would always assert this claim regardless of sound scientific refutation.

Authority could also be another reason. Just because someone famous said on TV that “Bad Things come in three”, people do have the tendency to believe in them. At the end of the day though, adherents of pseudoscience are grounded on the belief that their system is true, regardless of the insurmountable evidence against it. For as long as you choose to believe that “Bad things come in three”, then you will continue to adhere to it. Passion overcomes reason.In a reasonable scientific process, testability is a must and in testing, dependent and independent variables.

For us to test this claim, for example, one has to define what “bad things” mean. It should be measurable and quantifiable. It should not be relative. We also have to make clear what “three” refers to. It could mean anything. Do three donuts produce the same effect as three apples? Bottom-line is everything should be clear so that it could be tested.