In the United States 29-48% of the population state that they believe in the scientific
proof of ghosts, bigfoot, or UFOs and alien visitations, and 4% of those surveyed
believe the earth is flat. None of these phenomena have stood up to scientific tests
overtime and fall under the category of pseudoscience. Keep in mind, all things
including these are subject to further testing and as soon as someone has valid proof
like a skull of a yeti, and real alien, or a reproducible ghostly encounter, they will then
become part of the scientific paradigm, until that time they remain in the realm of
pseudoscience. This does not prevent people from doing scientific tests on these topics,
the paranormal research is an active field of investigation and the SETI project
continues to look for signs of intelligent life in the cosmos.
The topics of pseudoscience and anti-science usually seem plausible and develop a
following. Reasons for believing nonscientific claims include;
● It seems possible, or sounds logical
● It was once considered true.
● A famous person (scientist or otherwise) endorses it.
● The facts have not been closely examined.
● Discussing the idea makes you feel smart.
● It seems to fit with other beliefs.
● Science all sounds preposterous, why not this?
● Yetis, ghosts, and aliens are just very cool.
● You spent a lot of money on that ghost finder!
Anti-science has become a political movement that has been growing for the past few
decades mostly through social media misinformation campaigns on sites like Facebook.
Neil Johnson et.al. (2020) predicted that the anti-vaccination media campaign is
successfully converting undecided people at such a rate that it may become the
dominate view in the coming decade. All forms of anti-science are on the rise and used
regularly in political arenas with respect to public health or environmental issues like
climate change and the science community is just starting to strategize a response.
This is a precarious time for the role of science in society and we could easily undo the
public trust in science with powerful ramifications for our future.
Two papers to at least read the abstract of for the following assignment:
Johnson, Neil. “The online competition between pro- and anti-vaccination views.”
Nature. Vol 582 , 11 June 2020
Hotez, Peter. “Combating antiscience- Are we preparing for the 2020s? “PLOS Biology
March 202
Step 1 Post by the due date
Find and share an example of anti-science or pseudoscience in the media from the past
few weeks being used in a political or social context to influence a response. Reminder
– the article must be from the past 2-3 weeks to get any credit for this assignment. This
could be a climate change doubting opinion being used to prevent legislation on carbon
emissions or it could be an anti-vaccination position being used to prevent universal
vaccination policies. In a short paragraph explain the social ramifications of this position
becoming dominate in society.
Comment on 2 of your colleagues posts.
Step 2 Post by the closing date.
Survey the examples posted by your colleagues and synthesize some ideas about
what types of anti or pseudo science are trending right now and, reflecting on the main
ideas from the abstracts of the two papers posted above, discuss what the impact of
these examples might be. This should be at least a well developed paragraph.