Pseudoscience consists of statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be both scientific and factual but are incompatible with the scientific method. Pseudoscience often sensationalizes i.e., it draws huge, sweeping conclusions from a single study.
Misinformation is false information that is spread either by mistake or with intent to mislead. When there is intent to mislead, it is called disinformation.
Pseudoscience and science disinformation can and often do overlap.
SEE ALSO: bad science, junk science, deceptive science, hoax science, and fraudulent science
There are a lot of information sources designed to mislead or misinform. There are also a lot of sources with strong biases that impact the way they report facts. Unfortunately, there is no single perfect source we can rely on for all of our information needs. All information is made by people. Flawed, biased, imperfect people. Even sources we typically trust may occasionally share inaccurate or misleading information. So, the question is, how do we tell what is accurate? And how do we understand the bias or slant of reporting if we are unfamiliar with the source?
One of the best tools in our toolbox is called Lateral Reading. Fact checkers use lateral reading to investigate both a source and its claims.
When we practice lateral reading, instead of taking a website or a claim at face value, we open up new tabs and search for background on the source and then for corroborating stories from other sources. We might ask questions of our source like: