My comment on Chris Mooneys 2nd NdT/GMO column. Whats particularly interesting in this thread is that Chris Mooney has written extensively about the role of cognitive psychology and science communication and belief and we are seeing it on parade here. The work of Dan Kahan and others shows that unless we take active steps otherwise, we tend to believe what we want to believe and seek out sources that conform to our political and cultural affinities and loyalties, even to the point of denying the scientific consensus and accepting information from poor sources while dismissing evidence from highly credible sources. And so we see, the average comment going something along the lines of: I disagree with Neil deGrasse Tyson because [insert misconception or misinformation here] Then, if someone has the gall to point out the misconception, misinformation, or fallacious reasoning; as the cognitive dissonance mounts, instead of adjusting beliefs and understanding to the new information; insults are hurled, charges of shilldom are levied, appeals made to the Natural Fallacy, or more misinformation is marshalled from even sketchier sources. If Chris Mooneys readers and Neil deGrasse Tysons fans dont have the critical thinking skills to reason their way past their own biases, then we really have our work cut out for us. It will be interesting to see if any GMO critics respond.
Posted on: Thu, 07 Aug 2014 17:40:02 +0000
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