Evidence shows that shoving data in peoples’ faces doesn’t work to change minds.
As a scientist heavily engaged in science communication, I’ve seen it all.
People have come to my public talks to argue with me that the Big Bang never happened. People have sent me handwritten letters explaining how dark matter means that ghosts are real. People have asked me for my scientific opinion about homeopathy—and scoffed when they didn’t like my answer. People have told me, to my face, that what they just learned on a TV show proves that aliens built the pyramids and that I didn’t understand the science.
People have left comments on my YouTube videos saying… well, let’s not even go there.
I encounter pseudoscience everywhere I go. And I have to admit, it can be frustrating. But in all my years of working with the public, I’ve found a potential strategy. And that strategy doesn’t involve confronting pseudoscience head-on but rather empathizing with why people have pseudoscientific beliefs and finding ways to get them to understand and appreciate the scientific method.
People have been constantly bombarded since childhood at home (family, television, internet) and/or church with the propaganda of bogus belief systems. Some places (or homes) are better than others. Others can be much worse. For example, imagine growing up in the mormon environment of Provo, Utah, or the maga environment of rural Atlanta.
Meanwhile, for one reason or another, varying from place to place, the education system has failed them, by leaning on the laziest rest point of least effort in blocks designed for fifty students at a time, such as rote memorization. See active republican sabotage of evolution, history or sex education in red states like Kansas or Florida.
Many do manage to escape this intellectual swamp, despite the peer pressure, but many don’t, and that spark comes from within. What makes the escapees tick? What makes them strive forwards, while so many others idle and stagnate?
In my experience it’s best to first try to understand where the person is coming from and then address the underlying issue. Often it will be an misunderstanding of scientific method, combined with general mistrust in authorities and garnished with personal anecdotal experiences.
People who didn’t reason themselves into a position won’t be reasoned out of it.
I think we should take more decisive action against those parties that knowingly and deliberately promote pseudo-scientific attitudes with targeted misinformation in order to promote their interests. These powerful and unscrupulous players are at the heart of the problem, I’d say.
There’s just to much money to be made arguing pseudoscience these days. Take anything that might not be 100% proven, and you get a cheerleader claiming some “underdog” perspective. https://www.wweek.com/news/2024/01/02/robert-f-kennedy-jr-to-hold-presidential-campaign-fundraiser-in-lake-oswego/
