A Skeptic's Toolkit - Version 2.0 - 10 Questions for Any Claim

Ten questions for any claim. Built in clinical research.

A false health claim doesn’t need to be convincing. It only needs nobody to ask the next question.

The Skeptic’s Toolkit is ten questions you can run on any claim, from a supplement ad to a headline about a new study. Seven check the claim. Three check you. Each one comes from how clinical trials are built: compared to what, who’s behind it, how much evidence there is, and whether it happened because of this or just after it.

Version 2.0 adds five pages on where you’re standing. The same ten questions, answered four ways: the Believer, whose bar is on the floor. The Cynic, whose bar is in the sky. The Denier, whose bar keeps rising. And the Healthy Skeptic, who sets the bar before looking. Each page shows the way back to the middle, because it’s a place you stand on a topic, not who you are.

Print it and keep it where you scroll. Save the phone pages for the next forwarded miracle. When it helps you check a claim, tag @roottorx on Instagram with #SkepticalRevolution.

A thinking tool, not medical advice.

From Root to Rx, the science newsletter that makes sense of medicine.