Broscience

Broscience (or less commonly bromeopathyTucker Carlson Goes Nuts For 'Testicle Tanning' And The Internet Has Questions by Jazmin Tolliver (Apr. 18, 2022, 02:24 AM EDT) Huffington Post.) is a derogatory term for misconceptions and ideas of questionable scientific credibility, passed around among laymen by word-of-mouth as if factually true.
Most examples of broscience pertain to biology, fitness, and sports, and it most often circulates in fitness, athletic, and bodybuilding circles, where many people want to know how to most effectively work out but are either ignorant of or do not fully understand the actual science. In general, such beliefs rely on anecdotal evidence and gain their popularity more from if the speaker even lifts than from proof or references. 
Bodybuilders know all about hard work and effort being necessary to get the reward. But if you don't have a proper understanding of how to apply your hard work and effort, then it will amount to little more than repeatedly banging your head against a wall.
==History==
The word broscience is a compound of the word science with the word bro, a truncation of "brother" often used among friends in the social groups where such ideas circulate. It is (probably) a coincidence that broscience abbreviates to BS. One populariser of the term says:
As the name implies, the term "broscience" is usually applied to such notions passed around among men. Among women, a better term might be "support group science" or, historically, "wives' tales"."Sisscience" just isn't particularly catchy or fun to say. "Broscience" originally started to take off in 2008 and spread further post 2010.
According to Stephen Barrett, the thing we now call "broscience" is largely due to one a bodybuilding promoter, Olympic coach, and founding member of the President's Council on Physical Fitness and Sports. He was also involved in the National Health Federation and had a supplement business on the side, which got in trouble with the FDA many times.
==Examples of broscience==
==Exploring the limits of logical fallacies==
In 2022, as part of a show called "The End of Men" that alleges that somehow men are less masculine than they used to be, Tucker Carlson had a bro named Andrew McGovern who advocated testicle tanning using infrared light for its alleged ability to increase testosterone. As it is normally understood, using infrared light is not tanning, since tanning is caused by exposure to ultraviolet light. Carlson responded to his guest's claims by saying:Given endless resources, Tucker Carlson zeroes in on UFOs and testicles by Philip Bump (April 18, 2022) The Washington Post.
So, Carlson's argument goes something like this:
It's a crazy argument, right? Maybe we should take it seriously. Well, Carlson did by repeating the argument to justify taking seriously his show that explored the claim that extraterrestrials cause cattle mutilation. The argument consists of several fallacies: four-term fallacy, enthymeme fallacy, overgeneralization, false equivalence, and probably others.
==See also==
*Argumentum ad baculum, the generally implicit standard of evidence for broscience.
*Common sense
*Jack Dorsey, a proponent of techbroscience
*MythBusters
*Urban legend
==External links==
* 'Broscience' as defined by Urban dictionary
* Broscience.com — a forum dedicated to this sort of thing as if the term didn't mean "idiocy"
* The history of some popular broscience terms
* Everybody sing along!
==Notes==
==References==
Category:Bodybuilding woo
Category:Machismo
Category:Pseudoscience
Category:Purity culture