Science

Quicksearch

Blog Administration

Open login screen

RSS Readers

Wednesday, July 25. 2018

From AVI, What makes people distrust science? Surprisingly, not politics

Why would they think politics has anything to do with it? The authors seem overly worried about science skepticism. I think skepticism about the latest "science says" reports is the only rational approach. Indeed, besides curiosity and intelligence, skepticism is a hallmark of a serious scientist.

Science is not a list of eternal truths. It's a tool, a respected method for testing hypotheses for the purpose of theory-building. It's not a faith. Due to countless factors, the results of this testing tool are frequently in error.

Example: Much of what medical researchers conclude in their studies is misleading, exaggerated, or flat-out wrong.

Posted by The Barrister in The Culture, "Culture," Pop Culture and Recreation at 15:25 | Comments (10) | Trackbacks (0)

Trackbacks

Trackback specific URI for this entry

No Trackbacks

Comments

Display comments as (Linear | Threaded)

It is the news reports about science that are untrustworthy.

#1 Walt on 2018-07-25 16:29 (Reply)

Science is never settled and those who insist it is are the reason skepticism of science flourishes. Engineering is science that has been cornered.

#2 indyjonesouthere on 2018-07-25 16:52 (Reply)

One of the problems is that every undergraduate student of the sciences wants to be published and wants to produce a "study" with significant results. Some of these students will fake results, some will only report those results which prove a particular point or create a sensation. Working hand and hand with this loosey goosey "science" are the many magazine, newspapers and radio and TV shows which push these studies into the public eye. They too will edit and redact to make it appear that the result of the study is "A" not "B" or disproves a long standing belief. It is great fun, the glitterati us it to push their agenda. Politicians use it for the same reason. Middle America believes it because after all it is "science" don'tcha know. But in the end, almost all of it is wrong and often intentionally wrong.

#3 Anon on 2018-07-25 20:17 (Reply)

Science skepticism is probably more based on the mis-use of science by political ideologues: Club of Rome - resources running out; Peak Oil, Global cooling, Global warming. Y2K, etc. Surprisingly, the article did not mention flat earthers or Aliens/UFO's, Con-trail geo engineering, etc. Too much use of science for fear mongering makes skeptics.

#4 Blick on 2018-07-25 20:29 (Reply)

All it takes to distrust science is to work in the sciences for any reasonable period of time .

#5 Al Treworgy (Link) on 2018-07-26 09:11 (Reply)

QUOTE:

Why would they think politics has anything to do with it?

As an author of the study noted, "There is more to science skepticism than just political ideology." But politics certainly has something to do with it. Conservatism correlates with climate skepticism. Religiosity correlates with vaccine skepticism. Science illiteracy correlates with GMO skepticism. Overall, however, trust in science is negatively correlated with religiosity, people who also tend to be politically conservative.

#6 Zachriel on 2018-07-26 10:04 (Reply)

I wonder if the targeting of religiosity by some in science - certainly not all, not now, not by history, but rather obviously by many in science* - has driven a lot of the distrust flowing back toward science.

*And even more, science-y people who want to look knowledgeable without having to to the hard work.

#6.1 Assistant Village Idiot (Link) on 2018-07-26 10:24 (Reply)

Assistant Village Idiot: I wonder if the targeting of religiosity by some in science - certainly not all, not now, not by history, but rather obviously by many in science* - has driven a lot of the distrust flowing back toward science.

*And even more, science-y people who want to look knowledgeable without having to to the hard work.

Sure. There is certainly some of that. But religious reaction to the findings of science runs deep.

#6.1.1 Zachriel on 2018-07-26 10:29 (Reply)

The noisy believers in and touters of science are those with no skin in the game. (Scientific fact.)

#7 BillH on 2018-07-26 10:52 (Reply)

Of course the conclusions of medical research are wrong. Doctors don't study statistics, they study biostatistics. Now biostatisatics is to statistics as astrology is to astronomy.

#8 Ray on 2018-07-27 01:51 (Reply)

Add Comment

Name
Email	(Your e-mail will not show in your comment)
Homepage
In reply to
Comment	By commenting on this site you agree to the site rules listed here. Email addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for email notifications. Quick reference guide: [i] italics [/i], [b] bold [/b], [u] underline [/u], [url] (web address) [/url]. More tips here. Enclosing asterisks marks text as bold (word), underscore are made via _word_. E-Mail addresses will not be displayed and will only be used for E-Mail notifications. To prevent automated Bots from commentspamming, please enter the string you see in the image below in the appropriate input box. Your comment will only be submitted if the strings match. Please ensure that your browser supports and accepts cookies, or your comment cannot be verified correctly. Enter the string from the spam-prevention image above: BBCode format allowed
	Remember Information? Subscribe to this entry

Maggie's Farm

Our Recent Essays Behind the Front Page

Categories

Quicksearch

Links

Blog Administration

RSS Readers

Wednesday, July 25. 2018

Science