I have now formed an opinion and wonder what you think. It is never the hard science that requires math where the hoardes emerge. No one is posting conspiracies about electromagnetic theory or relativity. It’s always the simple, obvious science: do masks work?
I think it’s because science that simple let’s everyone on social media feel they can be a scientist too. No special training needed.
Am I wrong?
The answer you are looking for, young Papadum, depending on what metric used, is:
Around 24.8%.
I don't care about IQ test, but I don't see anything weird about the distribution: half the people are average; of the remaining half, half of it are inferior and half are superior.
Chris, you are looking at the wrong problem. It's not science vs. its denial, (I'm almost certain) rather stubbornness as well as surrender to living environment, wherewithal of each involved. That changes dynamics of this psychology totally. Think blue vs white collar workers, what each can or cannot afford. Compare a McDonalds, or a Pep Boys worker in The South with the CEO of some newfangled SIlicon Valley prop. It's not about IQ or lack thereof, it's about having no choice in society, especially at the job, where plantation boy management mentality prevails.
if only it was isolated to those with low intelligence. Unfortunately the research/stats show that college educated people are often the ones who fall for things like anti-vaccine and such. They are smart enough to find evidence to back any viewpoint they may encounter. In my opinion it’s a case of education has not caught up with social media and the internet’s plethora of misinformation. We need education to start teaching critical thinking as taught by expert skeptics and critical thinkers.
This is Carl Sagan, writing in 1995:
Science is more than a body of knowledge; it is a way of thinking. I have a foreboding of an America in my children’s or grandchildren’s time—when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what’s true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness.
And, yes, here we are, exactly where he predicted we might be. A not only in the US, either.
I am sitting here re-reading The Demon-Haunted World, Science as a Candle in the Dark, after having my soul freshly dented with Covid science denial in the news this morning.
Funny how imperfect memory is. I’ve been saying science is a way of thinking as much as a body of knowledge, feeling so wise for saying it, forgetting where I heard that, kinda letting myself believe I thought it up.
It’s a great book.
Their problem is they don’t know the difference between science and pseudoscience and don’t know how to evaluate sources.
Exactly. And that is a problem that is not going to go away, or be easily solved. We're not living in the age of information scarcity, but information glut. Naysayers don't have to be right, persuasive or even plausible. They just have to be loud enough and push out a volume of disinformation big enough that the average person just throws up their hands, gives up and concludes that there's no way to know what is true.
And that is why I despair for humanity.
I give a lot of thought to this. You can have a very profitable career in science without an education or doing any science, just by being a YouTuber or blogger. Scientists don't have time to YouTube or blog because they are busy conducting actual experiments.
I follow the diet wars pretty closely and the YouTubes that get the views have titles like "I went vegan for 30 days. This is what happened."
Does it matter what happened to one person for 30 days? But those videos can make you a YouTube star.
Here’s a guy who makes money on YouTube doing experimental science:
I don’t believe he’s a trained scientist. He sets up experiments to tests which consumer products are better.
Mythbusters did science without being scientists. Science popularizers are growing in importance as people like Trump try to use the lay populations ignorance against them. Science educational videos are also popular. My favourite to help kids learn is ASAP science.
Good intro for adults as well
adult science illiteracy is the problem. There’s another great video of Tyson saying we can’t wait for scientifically literate kids to grow up and save us. We have to somehow get adults to become scientifically literate and not believe so much bullshit. Unfortunately I couldn’t find a link to that video.
We need to work on adult science literacy now
if you have Facebook. It’s another version of Neil degrasse Tyson saying the answer isn’t educating kids to be scientifically literate but rather adults. If we fix the adult problem they will help the kids. We don’t have decades to wait for kids to grow up and then develop a scientifically literate population because we need it now.
Even worse is the finding that people tend to keep holding on to a mistaken belief even after they see it was found to be wrong. Throw out misinformation so long as it suites your needs and then you’ll still have people accepting your view even after it’s been proven wrong. Concerning.
I give a lot of thought to this. You can have a very profitable career in science without an education or doing any science, just by being a YouTuber or blogger. Scientists don't have time to YouTube or blog because they are busy conducting actual experiments.
I am generally grateful for science popularisers, I think they they play an important role in bringing science to the people. But, again, as with other sources of information, picking your sources is crucial. And then we run into the same problem of separating the wheat from the chaff...
...and we're back to despair for humanity.
But, to not be all negative, here are some of my favourite science communicators:
Kyle Hill (https://www.youtube.com/user/ScienceBasedLife)
Scott Manley (https://www.youtube.com/user/szyzyg)
Destin "Smarter Every Day" (https://www.youtube.com/user/destinws2)
Phil Plait (https://twitter.com/BadAstronomer)
Emily Lakdawalla (https://twitter.com/elakdawalla)
Zach Wienersmith (https://www.smbc-comics.com/)
Randall Munroe (https://xkcd.com/)
Do you watch spacerip videos? It’s a channel on YouTube. You seem to be a space geek like me.
Actually, you are so right. I love Veritasium:
And Mark Rober!
I agree, Veritasium is great.
I haven't until now. Thanks for the pointer, subscribed.
Carlson and Trump together bringing down America. Sad that North Korea and China can just sit back and enjoy the carnage these two create. Fauci did an amazing job during that cross examination and attempt to catch him up making a statement they can attack him on. Sad state America is in. I feel like my friends lives are going down the tubes and I’m powerless to help.
One of the world’s top experts in the area and the USA leader wants to tear him down because he can’t accept the truth because the truth, while it can help America, won’t help Donald Duck. Quack quack. Sad. Thanks for the video Chris.
