Guest post: This is not testable science

Originally a comment by Sastra on Confused stan.

“If you identify as a woman, you ARE a woman” is a “scientific consensus?” I don’t think so.

The late great Skepdoc Harriet Hall noted a common practice in pseudoscience and came up with an apt analogy and descriptive term: Tooth Fairy Science.

It’s perfectly possible for scientists to do studies on how much money the ToothFairy leaves in different countries, and whether she values front teeth more than molars or pillows more than bedside tables. Elaborate surveys measuring the satisfaction level of the children who receive a visit vs those who don’t could be sent out and results put in tables and diagrams. A substantial body of Tooth Fairy Science could thus exist, and be proudly pointed to when Tooth Fairy skeptics raise objections. The scientific consensus is that there’s a Tooth Fairy.

Except there isn’t because the critical initial step was skipped. Does the Tooth Fairy exist? Without first establishing the primary claim, the scientific studies may be accurate on one level, but nevertheless fundamentally unscientific and misleading. Tooth Fairy Science is particularly common in Alternative medicine. It’s pointless to take careful notes on how a manipulated human energy field changes patient-reported pain levels if the laws of physics rule them out: it’s placebo.

I think the difference between the Tooth Fairy and the assertion that “If you identify as a woman, you are a woman” is that it’s easier to come up with what constitutes disproof of the former. That makes the Tooth Fairy a more scientific style of hypothesis. I would love to ask Walz Stan “ if identifying as a woman DOESN’T make someone a woman, what would therefore change your mind?” I imagine it would have to be good evidence that males who identify as transgender have now started to insist they’re not women. This is not testable science.

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