TDL Brief: Trusting Science
“Fake news”, a term that should be reserved to describe misinformation, has quickly become a propaganda tool. This phenomenon has caused millions of Americans to stop trusting publicly provided information. Science, in particular, has taken a hit – it is no longer viewed as an authoritative, factual discipline and instead is now often met with skepticism. As political views continue to become more and more polarized, any scientific information that is incongruent with one’s political ideology begins to be distrusted. In this new era, information that we don’t like becomes characterized as untrustworthy.
The frayed relationship people are beginning to have with science and scientists means that the field needs to come up with new ways to try and get people to trust their findings. This might help explain the storyline Grey’s Anatomy decided to focus on in the first few episodes of season 17. Beloved character Derek Shepherd returned to the show, a decision which he said he made to try and get people to take COVID-19 more seriously.1 The star of the show, Mereredith Grey, also contracts the virus. A showrunner explained that this was an attempt to get the public to understand the very real consequences that the virus has had on healthcare workers.2 The idea behind both of these moves is that people might be more likely to trust their beloved celebrity doctors than real doctors – go figure!
Some of the scientific phenomena that have most been impacted by a growing distrust in science apart from the current COVID-19 virus are climate change and genetically modified organisms (GMOs). These are no small issues and whether or not people ‘believe’ in them greatly impacts our behavior, which can have grave consequences on our health and planet. People who don’t believe in the virus are unlikely to follow health protocols, people who don’t believe in climate change will continue engaging in behavior that harms our planet, and people that believe that food from GMOs is bad for you can be manipulated to buy expensive products.
Since a lack of trust in science impacts us all, not just the individuals who don’t listen to scientific experts, it is important that it is tackled with the correct strategies. In the modern world, just throwing data at people is not enough to get them to trust in the information, so other methods need to be used. Not all the blame can be placed on people – scientists have a role to play when it comes to getting people to trust science. This article will examine effective ways to restore trust in science and explore the ways in which distrust in science has impacted our response to COVID-19, climate change, and GMOs.
References
- Griffiths, E. (2020, November 18). How did Derek Shephard return to Grey’s Anatomy? Get the details. Hello Magazine. https://ca.hellomagazine.com/film/20201118101122/greys-anatomy-patrick-dempsey-derek-shephard-return-explained/
- Borge, J. (2020, November 20). Grey’s Anatomy Showrunner Unravels the Decision To Give Meredith Coronavirus. E! Online. https://www.eonline.com/ca/news/1210974/greys-anatomy-showrunner-unravels-the-decision-to-give-meredith-coronavirus
- Resnick, H. E., Sawyer, K., & Huddleston, N. (2015). What Do We Know About Public Trust in Science? In Trust and confidence at the interfaces of the life sciences and society: Does the public trust science? A workshop summary (pp. 11-20). National Academies Press. ISBN: 978-0-309-37792-8
- Brean, J. (2020, May 8). ‘A matter of trust’: COVID-19 pandemic has tested public confidence in science like never before. The National Post. https://nationalpost.com/news/a-matter-of-trust-covid-19-pandemic-has-tested-public-confidence-in-science-like-never-before
- Kabat, G. C. (2017). Taking distrust of science seriously: To overcome public distrust in science, scientists need to stop pretending that there is a scientific consensus on controversial issues when there is not. Embo Reports, 18(7), 1052-1055. https://doi.org/10.15252/embr.201744294
- Celniker, J. (2020, October 7). Science denial isn’t only a conservative problem. The Decision Lab. https://thedecisionlab.com/insights/environment/science-denial-isnt-only-a-conservative-problem/
- Wager, R., & Daynard, T. (2016, August 12). GMOs: Trust The Science, Not The Food Fad. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/gmoanswers/2016/08/12/gmos-trust-the-science-not-the-food-fad/?sh=11b487706fa2
About the Authors
Dan Pilat
Dan is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. Dan has a background in organizational decision making, with a BComm in Decision & Information Systems from McGill University. He has worked on enterprise-level behavioral architecture at TD Securities and BMO Capital Markets, where he advised management on the implementation of systems processing billions of dollars per week. Driven by an appetite for the latest in technology, Dan created a course on business intelligence and lectured at McGill University, and has applied behavioral science to topics such as augmented and virtual reality.
Dr. Sekoul Krastev
Sekoul is a Co-Founder and Managing Director at The Decision Lab. He is a bestselling author of Intention - a book he wrote with Wiley on the mindful application of behavioral science in organizations. A decision scientist with a PhD in Decision Neuroscience from McGill University, Sekoul's work has been featured in peer-reviewed journals and has been presented at conferences around the world. Sekoul previously advised management on innovation and engagement strategy at The Boston Consulting Group as well as on online media strategy at Google. He has a deep interest in the applications of behavioral science to new technology and has published on these topics in places such as the Huffington Post and Strategy & Business.
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