Why people reject science

4 Post author: Psychohistorian 02 February 2011 03:42PM

From the NYTimes. The central point:

 

Humans, he argues, are hard-wired to reject scientific conclusions that run counter to their instinctive belief that someone or something is out to get them.

 

Comments (5)

Comment author: JoshuaZ 02 February 2011 08:08:37PM 2 points [-]

This doesn't seem to really be about science per se. It seems to be more that people reject claims regardless of their truth when the claims are associated with hostile tribes.

Comment author: mwengler 02 February 2011 08:29:57PM 2 points [-]

Which means it is about human biases affecting rationality. On topic totally.

Comment author: JoshuaZ 02 February 2011 11:58:00PM 1 point [-]

Sure. Completely on topic. I upvoted it. I'm not sure why it has been downvoted.

Comment author: blogospheroid 03 February 2011 05:17:28AM 1 point [-]

It is almost a truism in business process re-engineering that you should always make people feel comfortable, whatever they do in the current process and explain to them the value that they will be adding in the new setup/process. If people feel insecure, it is very difficult to get their cooperation and your project will tend to fail, badly.

Comment author: Snowyowl 04 February 2011 10:30:14PM -1 points [-]

And if you reject science, you conclude that scientists are out to get you. The boot fits; upvoted.