Science and pseudoscience distinctions and implications

Science and Pseudoscience

Would you describe the claims made in this article on weight loss as having been based on scientific or pseudoscientific research? Explain your answer.

I would describe the claims made in the Sensa article as being made completely on pseudoscientific research. Research that is scientific in nature has a clear hypothesis that is testable and that can be proven to be either valid or invalid (Braithwaite & Jackson, 2006). Because that is the case, it is easy to see that the Sensa article does not offer scientific proof of the validity of its claims. One of the largest red flags is that the Sensa article provides the opinions of celebrities, which is a ploy often used by pseudoscientific articles to make people think something must be good because all the celebrities are using it. While celebrities are much more popular in the U.S. today than scientists, the ability of a celebrity to make a claim about the scientifically testable (but apparently untested) properties of a product must be called into question.

The article also claims to have reviews from respected publications (Weight, 2012). After making that claim, it goes on to cite Good Housekeeping, and InStyle - two publications that are decidedly not in the same vein as scientific journals. The largest and most obvious reason that this article is pseudoscientific, though, is the small print at the bottom, under the link to click to buy the product (another red flag). The print says "This article sponsored by Sensa" (Weight, 2012). No reputable scientific study would ever be sponsored by the product it was studying. No reputable journal or other publication would allow sponsorship of a scientific study, because that completely taints the conclusion reached by that study and calls into question everything from the hypothesis to the method.

Question 2: As a scientist, how would you design a research study to disprove or prove the hypothesis: Sensa causes weight loss without dieting.

In order to design a research study to determine whether Sensa actually does cause weight loss without dieting, the scientific method would have to be used. This begins by asking a question. In that case, the question would be: Does Sensa cause weight loss without dieting? Background research would then need to be done. This would include any literature and other research information that could be found on Sensa from reputable sources. Information from InStyle and Good Housekeeping would not be considered for this type of research, because these are not reputable magazines from a scientific standpoint. A hypothesis would be constructed from the background research, which would be that Sensa causes weight loss without dieting. From that point, it would be necessary to conduct an experiment to prove or disprove that hypothesis.