Definition:
Coined by Irving Langmuir, the term refers to the process of claiming the detection of some causal connection or force operating behind observed phenomena, even the forces or phenomena are, at best, barely on the edge of possible perception.

Pathological science occurs because scientists are, after all, human beings and are prone to see what they want or what they expect. People being people, they can fool themselves into believing something that never really should have been accepted in the first place. As a result, skeptics and independent researchers are unable to reproduce the experiments, but true believers can do so readily. Very often, pathological science is simply a form of confirmation bias.

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