I've thought a lot about the questions:
- What could we as a society do to avoid falling into the unavoidable mistakes made in research?
- Can society accept that there will always be mistakes made in research, as science is not a 100% pure thing?
First of all, for society to no longer fall into the "trap" that some researchers set, more of society would need to start looking into the data themselves to make sure the numbers look correct and the analysis matches the data (something people did not do with Potti). However, the sad thing about society is that people do not do their own research. For example, the parents who read the Wakefield study did not look into the data themselves, nor did they start rejecting their conclusions of the MMR vaccine even after the research was retracted. This is the perfect example that even when researchers make mistakes, society will still believe what they WANT to believe, regardless of the facts that stare them in the face. Society is weakened by fear and the unknown. What I mean by this is that society is willing to believe whatever they have to to create an answer for the unknown (i.e. Autism, cancer, etc.). Society needs a sense of security and omniscience. Until people realize that we don't need an answer to everything, I believe that this will help society in its struggle against the traps within some research. Also, ideally, to avoid following these mistakes, people need to gain more education, as well as stop believing everything the media portrays to be "the new leading breakthrough to cancer, autism, etc.".
On the other hand, however, I don't think society will ever accept that science is not pure and commonly has mistakes. As said earlier, people cling to answers. Thus, people cling to science thinking it will always have a definitive answer. Accepting that science is prone to mistakes would mean people accepting that sometimes there just is not an answer. Sadly, society is not willing to accept this and until they do people will continue to get caught in the traps of science (whether it is intentional or not, a mistake is a mistake and people need to realize it when they see one).
Tamra,
ReplyDeleteYou bring up a lot of good points and I agree with you that society needs to do more of its own research before forming opinions on scientific topics. I also think that we as a society can implement changes that will make it easier for the general person to access scientific studies. Perhaps one of the easiest ways to do this would be to place more media attention on actual scientists rather than ill-informed celebrities.