Trusting Pseudoscience in Contemporary Japan

Pseudoscience refers to ideas and claims that look like science but are not actually based on scientific methods or evidence. Fortune-telling and the existence of UFOs are well known as pseudo-science because they are difficult to verify using scientific methods. In addition, health-related findings often include claims that are not scientifically proven but are presented as if they were scientific findings.

The question of how to set the demarcation between science and pseudo-science has been addressed in philosophy of science since Karl Popper (1963), but there does not seem to have been much sociological discussion on the subject. In Japan, a phenomenon has occurred whereby the name of a chemical substance is pushed to the fore to gain publicity; for example, collagen is a protein known to be effective in bone and muscle formation, joint lubrication and skin moisture; many cosmetics and beauty products are sold as containing collagen, and there is even a discourses about chicken hot pots with a lot of fat in them, saying that they are full of collagen and good for the skin.

“Scientific” discourses are trusted without examining their contents only because they look scientific. This is thought to be related to one's image of and attitude towards science. Furthermore, a cognitive bias that people are more likely to trust what they want the world to be like may also contribute to it. In other words, health-conscious people tend to trust the discourse on health benefits without examining the specific scientific content. On the other hand, a certain number of people are skeptical about the findings provided by the government, which could be explained in the same way. In this presentation, attitudes towards pseudoscience will be argued using the Japanese examples.