Author Archives: Fallacy Man

Stop blaming China and India for climate change

Over and over again when discussing climate change, I encounter Americans who insist that there is no point in doing anything because China and India are the real problem. This claim takes various forms but generally includes claiming that America’s … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming | Tagged , | 4 Comments

Big pharma is not buying favorable peer-reviews

Science-deniers have a long history of blindly assuming that any research they don’t like must have been corrupted by “big whatever,” and I constantly see people assume a study had conflicts of interest rather than actually checking for conflicts. Lately, … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science, Vaccines/Alternative Medicine | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Is the “backfire effect” real?

The “backfire effect” is a psychological phenomenon in which correcting misinformation actually reinforces the false view rather than causing someone to reject it (Nyhan and Reifler 2010). This topic comes a lot in the comments on this and other pro-science … Continue reading

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Science never showed that smoking was safe

“Science used to say that smoking was safe, so why should we ‘trust the science’ when it says that vaccines are safe and effective, climate change is real, or GMOs are safe?” This is one of the most common excuses … Continue reading

Posted in Nature of Science | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Climate change is undeniable: Evidence from satellites

The evidence for anthropogenic climate change is overwhelming, but the inherent complexity of the climate can make it difficult to communicate the science to the public. The basic concept is simple enough (CO2 traps heat, we have increased the CO2 … Continue reading

Posted in Global Warming | Tagged , | 5 Comments