Why people do not believe in science and how to fix it?

"Vaccinations are safe and effective," "People putcatastrophic damage to the environment "," Semi-finished products are slowly killing us, "" The theory of evolution explains our diversity. " These are all scientific and proven facts. But a large number of people do not believe in them. And this leads to frightening consequences: an increase in the incidence of influenza and acute respiratory viral infections (ARVI); an increase in the average temperature on the planet, which brings the extinction of a huge number of living species; the development of serious diseases and a shortened lifetime. Why people do not believe in science and how to fix it?

Gene science, where are you when you need it?

People do not have a “science gene”. But, most likely, there are genes responsible for our prejudices, mystical thinking, conspiracy ideas, and various conspiracy theories, rumors and gossip. It is probably impossible to explain in a different way why people believe in conspiracy, and not in scientific facts. Long ago, when people lived in the forests, and not in cities and villages - how did they learn new information? We did not have newspapers, TV, Internet. All the information we received from the rumors. Ancient peddlers of rumors, spread the insane stories about why the weather is changing, about the gods and so on. On the one hand, it was good. It helped us survive. But in 99 percent of cases this information was unreliable. The very development of civilization took place on the remaining one percent.

It would seem that today we have very accuratescientific tools and research methods to establish the truth. We created nuclear and biological weapons, the Internet, phones. All these are inventions of scientists and engineers - but they are not believed. People continue, as thousands of years ago, to believe in conspiracy and rumors. In "aliens among us" and "reptiloids." In Nibiru. How to deal with it? How to prove to people that you need to believe in science?

Denial of misinformation and rumors can reducelevel of denial of scientific facts. But this is not enough to completely eradicate the impact on people of the originally cast “duck”. A simple belief, rather, will cause a backlash. The man will begin to deny the facts even more. Conventional methods will not help here.

How to convince people to believe in progress?

Full denial and skepticism are two.completely different things. Skepticism is a doubt in the results of a study that forces us to independently verify the accuracy of the conclusion of this study. The denial of scientific fact is simply denial. The person does not want to believe in the conclusion of the study, simply because he does not want. He is so comfortable. He is used to the order of things that surrounds him. He does not think about the evidence.

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It can be fixed. It turns out that if you submit a scientific fact gently, with a certain degree of uncertainty, this will lead to the fact that a person from a complete denial can become a skeptic. And this is progress. In other words, the methods that are used to spread rumors and reduce the value of scientific facts can be used to convince people of these very scientific facts.

The same vaccine example. People who deny their benefits often say that vaccinations cannot be completely safe. A scientist can correct this misconception as follows. First, by giving evidence and telling that vaccinations have a high safety record. And secondly, pointing out that 100% safe drugs in the world do not exist. The effectiveness of this approach in disseminating scientific facts is proved by experiments with volunteers.

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