credenial

Credenial is a neologism used in discussions of epistemology, rhetoric, and media literacy to describe the practice of denying a claim by attacking its credibility rather than directly addressing the evidence. The term blends credence (the degree of belief assigned to a claim) with denial, signaling a behavior in which parties treat the purported credibility of the claim as more important than its truth value. While not a formal concept in philosophy, credenial is used to analyze argumentative tactics in politics, journalism, and online discourse, such as dismissing a study by questioning the researchers’ motives, misrepresenting the methods, or citing unrelated authorities to cast doubt on the results.

Distinctions and relations: credenial is distinct from rational skepticism, which weighs evidence and remains open to revision; credenial tends to preempt evaluation by casting doubt on the source rather than on the evidence. It overlaps with practices described as ad hominem, straw man, or cherry-picking, and is sometimes discussed alongside denialism when evidence is systematically rejected. The concept is often employed in critical analysis of information warfare, misinformation, and polarization, where source credibility is weaponized to undermine valid claims.

Critique: scholars note that labeling a claim as credenial can be useful for describing rhetorical strategy, but they caution against overgeneralization, as legitimate critique of sources can also involve assessing credibility. See also denialism, motivated reasoning, epistemic virtue.