cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/10673163
Evidence shows that shoving data in peoplesā faces doesnāt work to change minds.
As a scientist heavily engaged in science communication, Iāve seen it all.
People have come to my public talks to argue with me that the Big Bang never happened. People have sent me handwritten letters explaining how dark matter means that ghosts are real. People have asked me for my scientific opinion about homeopathyāand scoffed when they didnāt like my answer. People have told me, to my face, that what they just learned on a TV show proves that aliens built the pyramids and that I didnāt understand the science.
People have left comments on my YouTube videos sayingā¦ well, letās not even go there.
I encounter pseudoscience everywhere I go. And I have to admit, it can be frustrating. But in all my years of working with the public, Iāve found a potential strategy. And that strategy doesnāt involve confronting pseudoscience head-on but rather empathizing with why people have pseudoscientific beliefs and finding ways to get them to understand and appreciate the scientific method.
Itās a good point, you just canāt expect empathy in return. That tends to wear you down, so I donāt really know what the answer is. Maybe picking your battles is important too.
Well yes. You donāt have to be a keyboard warrior, you can choose to see something you donāt agree with and just move on.
Itās like people think downvotes will somehow change the mind of the person who is posting. It probably wonāt. :)
In the real world, people make their own decisions, no matter how much you click the downvote button. :)
I donāt down vote to change the posters mind. I down vote as a courtesy to others, so they can see what is relevant and what is not. As a bonus; people who have no idea can look at it and say āthis is probably wrong since everyone down voted itā.
Donāt conflate āwrongā with āunpopular opinionā. I was honestly hoping this downvote for disagreement thing would stay behind on reddit.
The standard, IMO, should be ācontributes to the conversationā vs ācontributes to the noiseā.
Respectfuly - I think that should have stayed on reddit. There is no reason we need to follow the cultural norms of a place we left. Downvoting obvious bullshit is always ok to me whether that bullshittery adds to the conversation or not.
Bullshit doesnāt add to the conversation, by definition, so Iām not sure what you mean here unless youāre saying to do away with upvotes and downvotes completely. Thatās fine, by the way; I donāt really have an opinion myself, just because Iām not sure what would be a good replacement mechanism.
deleted by creator
I donāt downvote things I disagree with, but I do downvote things that are objectively false or downright stupid.