From guest blogger Amanda Freise at Scientific American:
It’s Time for Scientists to Stop Explaining So Much
Research shows that more facts don’t necessarily lead to changed minds, but my colleagues have a hard time accepting it
Not to leave you in suspense or anything:
This theory of science communication, the so-called “deficit model,” suggests that public skepticism of science is due to a lack of information and understanding, and can be overcome if more information is provided. But the model has been widely discredited. Simply giving someone information, no matter how much or how many experts stand behind it, just isn’t enough to convince them. So why, in the face of evidence, do some scientists continue to insist that information must be sufficient to persuade the public? More.
North Korea wouldn’t bother explaining. And look where they are today.
It doesn’t seem to occur to Freise that loss of confidence within science is part of the problem. If the editor of Nature is calling peer review unscientific, what are the rest of us supposed to salute?
But some have probably staked their careers on the hope of a new authoritarian regime where credibility doesn’t matter, only power.
See also: Bunk science: Peer review
Follow UD News at Twitter!