Hoax
A hoax is a deliberate falsehood or fabricated event presented as genuine, usually to mislead, amuse, or provoke people.
Misinformation: False or inaccurate information, whether spread deliberately or unintentionally. A hoax is a deliberate, fabricated instance of the broader spread of false information.
Piltdown Man: A forged fossil assemblage presented as the remains of an ancient human ancestor in England. The case shows how fabricated physical evidence sustained a scientific hoax for decades.
Practical joke: A staged trick intended to amuse by briefly making someone believe something false. A practical joke is a hoax-like deception, usually limited to a playful target and setting.
Media literacy: The ability to access, analyze, evaluate, and create media in different forms. Media literacy helps people assess the presentation and evidence through which hoaxes gain reach.
Forgery: The creation or alteration of an object or document intended to deceive about its authenticity. Forged artifacts can serve as tangible evidence in a hoax.
Great Moon Hoax: An 1835 series of newspaper articles falsely describing life discovered on the Moon. It demonstrates how sensational reporting can lend authority to an invented discovery.
Satire: A form of expression that uses humor, irony, or exaggeration to criticize people or institutions. Satire may imitate false claims but signals its critical or comic purpose rather than posing as fact.
Scientific fraud: Deliberate deception in scientific research, including fabrication, falsification, or plagiarism. Scientific hoaxes can become cases of research fraud when fabricated findings enter scholarly records.
Social engineering: The use of deception to manipulate people into revealing information or taking actions. Hoaxes exploit human trust and expectations to secure belief or participation.
War of the Worlds (1938 radio drama): A radio adaptation of H. G. Wells’s novel, broadcast by CBS in 1938. Its dramatized invasion was fiction, not a hoax, despite later claims of widespread panic.