One of my most favorite magazines, SEED, posted online today an interview with Dr. John Marburger by the magazine’s editor Adam Bly (who was awesome last fall here at the Chicago Humanities Festival). The interview with President Bush’s scientific adviser provides an interesting perspective on science, policy and society from a White House insider.
I have disagreed with many of the Bush administration’s scientific policies, but I thought Marburger was right-on when asked about beliefs held by the general public:
Scientists, I think, are particularly vulnerable to the informational cascade phenomenon. They know who the good scientists are, and when a good scientist says something, the others tend to say, “Gee, I know he is smart or she is smart, so what he’s saying must be right.” So it doesn’t take too much to tilt a community like this toward a mythology or a mistaken impression. In the absence of some strong rebuttal, I think it is likely to take root in the media environment that we have today.
Great point. It’s easy to accept what we’re told, especially if it’s by “experts.” For example, we’re often raised to to fully accept what’s in our textbooks and to blindly trust what medical doctors tell us. But even though the very essence of science is to question, Marburger argues that scientists themselves do the exact same thing. That’s kind of scary…
To me, a world in which we don’t ask questions, doubt, and re-evaluate what we learn is a world without the most fundamental level of scientific thinking. So….why not challenge everything? Ask questions. Look up more answers in newspapers and the internet. Come up with your own ideas, even if they seem far-fetched. Just because an expert says it doesn’t necessarily make something true; it’s up to all of us to think for ourselves and be true scientists everyday, about as many things as we can. I’m totally up for the challenge….who’s with me?
