Pseudoscience and "junk science" in the public sphere

The author analyzes pseudoscientific practices that are prevalent in the society whose members: - are capable of exchanging the information and criticizing it, developing their own opinions and interpreting the opinions of the others; - publicly express their attitude to anything and start the disputes. The concepts of pseudoscience and «junk science» differ. Pseudoscience is the whole complex of incorrect uses of scientific data, their incorrect interpretations, as well as conclusions obtained with logical errors and / or with references to untested, incomplete and / or pseudoscientific studies. Deliberate fabrications with the purpose of creating (or retaining) convictions, which the liars themselves consider to be contrary to the truth, since they consciously distort the perceived situation for the sake of opportunistic considerations are considered as «junk science». The author proposes to consider arguments, backed up by a reference to unknown who, when, where and why researches as «magic phrases». There were discovered the following errors when using the scientific data: having become acquainted with the data on a certain group of phenomena, they conclude about a specific phenomenon; average statistical indicators being interpreted as regular relations within a particular group (phenomena); high correlation coefficients being used as sufficient grounds for establishing permanent links; affirming the existing relationship between the two events that have occurred simultaneously; transferring correlations between elements in one group to elements in some other groups that differ from the observed formally or substantively; not using all available meanings when making a conclusion, or selecting the particular meanings intentionally; comparing numbers instead of comparing percentages; drawing conclusions based on a comparison of indicators that have different values for each of the groups being compared; not distinguishing between changes in the object and changes in methods of conducting research, and so on.