The Cardiff Giant and the Piltdown Man hoaxes both involved fake remains of an ancient human that once walked the earth but there is where their similarities end. The execution and motivations behind these two hoaxes are distinctly different. Beginning with the execution of the two hoaxes, the Piltdown Man was much more thought out. By comparison, the Cardiff Giant seems like a lazy attempt at a hoax. The Piltdown Man was designed to fool scientists. The creator of the fake artifact, Charles Dawson, filed down sections of the skull, built up other sections with a paste, and used chemicals to make the bones appear much older than they were. He even filled in the cavities of the sinuses with metal ball bearings to add weight to the skull to make it more convincing that the skull was fossilized. On the other hand, the Cardiff Giant was designed with the priority for it to look impressive. Scientists quickly realized that what appeared to be a large fossilized man was just a hoax carved out of stone. Scientists could see tool marks from when it was carved. They could also tell it had not been in the ground long enough to be an actual fossil. The effort put into making these hoaxes ties directly in with their motivations. The motivations behind the Cardiff giant were mainly money along with proving that the stories in the bible were only believed by gullible people. George Hull, the creator of the Cardiff Giant, didn’t need the giant to convince scientists because he was never trying to convince them. He knew that the bible held stories of giants so when “proof” of a giant man was found, people would believe it because it supported the bible. George Hull was a rich atheist so the concept of proving his point that the bible is for the gullible was enough motivation for him. The other people who allowed the knowledge of the discovery of the giant were clearly motivated by money. The Cardiff giant became a sideshow attraction that brought tourists to wherever it went. The giant was so profitable that P. T. Barnum made his own fake giant that he exhibited for profit. The Piltdown Man was treated very differently than the Cardiff Giant. The skull was examined and studied by scientists and was not an attraction for tourists to see. This matches with the motivations for the creation of the fake artifact. The Piltdown Man skull was created for nationalism, scientific ideology, and fame. The major European nations had been significant human fossils but England had not found anything. The finds that other nations had were not supportive of the brain centered theory of evolution (evolution started with the brain and moved out from there). The fake skule Charles Dawson created both put England on the map for countries with significant human fossil discoveries and supported brain centered theory for evolution. His “discovery” also made  him very famous within that scientific community. In the case of both of these hoaxes, they were able to succeed for some time because people wanted to believe them. Scientists were looking for proof for the brain centered theory of evolution so when proof showed up they believed it first and questioned it later. Same is true for the Cardiff giant. The bible said that giants used to walk the earth so seeing proof of one was not impossible. If people think something may be true, they will not readily question proof that supports what they want to be true. People believed the Cardiff giant even though it was an obvious fake because they did not have the scientific skills to determine otherwise. Just because scientists did not fall victim to the Cardiff Giant hoax does not mean they are immune to being misled because of what results they want to find. It is likely in the case of the Cardiff giant that scientists were quick to prove it was a hoax because they did not want it to be true. The Piltdown Man is a clear example that even “objective” scientists cannot be trusted to apply a skeptical eye to data when those data fulfill their expectations and desires.  The Cardiff example is generalized to people instead of scientists but as scientists are still people, the comparison still applies. The Piltdown Man hoax shows the self-corrective nature of science as scientists believed the hoax and later disproved it. The Cardiff Giant does not show anything about the self-corrective nature of science though because it was never believed by scientists. The effects of these hoaxes today are very different from each other. The Cardiff Giant had little effect on our understanding of past humans because it was such a wild hoax but the Piltdown Man hoax has left a negative image of scientists. Although the hoax is now a well known lie it supports the theory that scientists are liars who hide the truth and make false claims. Although scientists may understand past humans, nonscientists’ knowledge may have been affected because they do not trust scientists.