Model false rigor

There is a way in which this happens, I think. It occurs through a phenomenon that one might call false rigor, in which a model masquerades as a more respectable theory than it really is. This is caused not by duplicity on the part of the model s proponents, but most frequently by the fuzzy thinking of those of us who use it. A somewhat related idea has been presented by Bhushan and Rosenfeld (1995). I will cite here an example that will be developed in more detail in the next section. 

Although junk science has no rigorous definition, it is characterized by one or both of two properties (1) data that do not meet the normal criteria for being unbiased and objective, and (2) inappropriate or incomplete representations of tests of the predictive accuracy of of models that create a false impression of reliability. 

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