We May Be Wasting Our Time Educating Public

October 21, 2008

Scientists really like the idea that if you line up all of the facts, you'll draw a tidy conclusion. But more and more it seems that values influence scientific conclusions. That's what Dietram Schuefele and his colleagues report in a recent study published in the Public Understanding of Science. It makes sense. A person who is fairly conservative in his/her religious beliefs will draw different conclusions about stem cell research or using nanorobots to treat disease. And that's important information to take into consideration because if you're trying to promote science to masses....if you're trying to advocate funding for some avenue of research, well, you might be talking to a wall.

Says Schuefele: "we may be wasting valuable time and resources by focusing our efforts on putting more and more information in front of an unaware public, without first developing a better understanding of how different groups will filter or reinterpret this information when it reaches them, given their personal value systems and beliefs."

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