This seems to be very relevant to our discussion here:
@thepalmhq has brought up valid concerns about miscommunication from scientific officials, like the FDA, CDC and WHO. However, that alone is not nearly enough to address the issue regarding (dis)trust in science. In fact, the research mentioned in this article points out that trust in science is actually pretty high. The problem is that we are currently living in a social and political ecosystem where the influence of reliable science communication is overwhelmed by unreliable noise, so it’s not surprising that many end up believing in pure nonsense while thinking it is legit science. It’s not the lack of trust but misplaced trust that is the main issue here. Some specific examples mentioned are:
- Trust in non-scientists:
- Political leaders: e.g. countries whose political leaders misinformed their citizens by minimizing the severity or denying the existence of the pandemic, undermined the need for masks and questioned the safety of the vaccines.
- Other examples of ‘local influencers’: Family members, celebrities, community leaders, religious leaders. Generally, people with whome they personally identify with or respect.
- Politicization of science: with governments and large organizations having too much influence on how science is conducted. This also makes people more open to alternative narratives which are not science-based but rooted in ideology.
- Personal experience: Scientific data is rooted in statistical analyses of data to detect patterns that are reliable observed among a large sample size. However, very often personal experience holds priority over this. For example, the large scale studies showing vaccines do not cause autism tends to not matter compared to the parent’s own experience with their child or seeing other personal stories. Anecdotes of someone you know often has more emotional power than the statistics of 10,000.