Discredited

Discredited is an adjective used to describe something whose credibility has been undermined, typically by evidence or consensus showing it is false, unreliable, or unsupported. A discredited claim has been shown to be false or misleading; a discredited source is no longer considered trustworthy.

Causes of discreditation include replication failures, data fabrication, methodological flaws, bias, ethical violations, or misrepresentation. In science and scholarship, discreditation occurs when evidence accumulates that contradicts a claim or when methods are found to be invalid.

Discreditation can lead to retractions, corrections, loss of funding, or withdrawal of support, and it can linger in public discourse even after formal actions. In journalism and politics, discredited information may spread through rumor or selective reporting, with fact-checking or investigations used to restore or diminish credibility. The term is often distinguished from debunked, where a claim is presented as definitively false; discredited emphasizes loss of credibility, which may or may not be accompanied by a formal demonstration of falsehood.

Examples cited in public discourse include scientific studies later found to have serious flaws or misconduct. A widely known case is the 1998 Lancet paper by Andrew Wakefield linking vaccines and autism, which was retracted and led to the author losing his medical license, illustrating how a once influential claim can become discredited. The broader claim remains controversial in some circles even after discreditation.

The term is used across science, media, and everyday discourse to describe loss of trust in a claim, person, or source. See also credibility, misinformation.