Health Facts Aren't Enough. Should Persuasion Become a Priority? - The New York Times - 0 views
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In a paper published early this year in Nature Human Behavior, scientists asked 500 Americans what they thought about foods that contained genetically modified organisms.
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The vast majority, more than 90 percent, opposed their use. This belief is in conflict with the consensus of scientists
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The second finding of the study was more eye-opening. Those who were most opposed to genetically modified foods believed they were the most knowledgeable about this issue, yet scored the lowest on actual tests of scientific knowledge.
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A small percentage of the public believes that vaccines are truly dangerous. People who hold this view — which is incorrect — also believe that they know more than experts about this topic.
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those with the least understanding of science had the most science-opposed views, but thought they knew the most
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Most of them say they are unaffected by claims from experts contradicting the claims of manufacturers. Only a quarter said they would stop using supplements if experts said they were ineffective. They must think they know better.
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the Dunning-Kruger effect, named for the two psychologists who wrote a seminal paper in 1999 entitled “Unskilled and Unaware of It.”
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A lack of knowledge leaves some without the contextual information necessary to recognize mistakes, they wrote, and their “incompetence robs them of the ability to realize it.”
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communication strategies on G.M.O.s — intended to help the public see that their beliefs did not align with experts — wound up backfiring
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attempting to provide corrective information to voters about death panels wound up increasing their belief in them among politically knowledgeable supporters of Sarah Palin.
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A 2015 study published in Vaccine showed that giving corrective information about the flu vaccine led patients most concerned about side effects to be less likely to get the vaccine.
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“knowledge deficit model,” an idea that the lack of support for good policies, and good science, merely reflects a lack of scientific information.
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Scientists need to be formally trained in communication skills, they said, and they also need to realize that the knowledge deficit model makes for easy policy, but not necessarily good results.
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It seems important to engage the public more, and earn their trust through continued, more personal interaction, using many different platforms and technologies
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Bombarding people with more information about studies isn’t helping. How the information contained in them is disseminated and discussed may be much more important.