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by AshWolfy 1994 days ago
Science is built on consensus

Also the fact that mask mandates are poorly enforced, or that masks arent a replacement for other forms of prevention, or that some materials dont offer the same level of prevention dont change the fact that masks work
3 comments
iwlwifi-8265 1994 days ago
> Science is built on consensus

That's definitely the messaging public representatives use when communicating science issues to the general public. It's very effective at getting compliance across a society where our instinct is to look to our peers to figure out how to behave.

As others have said, what has made science effective at being a vehicle of growth and change is that it is empirical / evidence based. New ideas slowly diffuse and get accepted as evidence grows for their support (which can take a long while).

Decision making by evidence is also pretty much the opposite of natural human group behavior. I recommend reading/listening to some of the newer research on human psychology of groups. It pretty concretely shows that people consistently choose group harmony + stability over converging on the truth / correctness. Basically in a group we value getting along with each other a lot more (being in agreement / having consensus) than we value knowing what really is happening. Also, scientists being humans are not immune to this behavior either which is why evidence based progress is slow and can be resisted by established groups for lengthy periods.

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irq11 1994 days ago
It is not. Science is “built on” evidence.

I am a professional scientist. Nobody has ever given me a pass on publication simply because they want to believe me.

That said, science is a human institution, and all humans have cognitive biases that can be exploited - particularly in large groups.

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esyir 1994 days ago
That's a terribly optimistic view of science, speaking as someone who was also in the same boat. They might not just accept anything, but it'll be much easier if they want to believe you. This goes quintuple for social science.
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irq11 1993 days ago
Yes, we agree on that. Which is, again, why we don’t do “science“ by length of signature list.
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disown 1994 days ago
> Science is built on consensus

No it's not. It's built on hypothesis and experiments (empiricism).

Just because the nazi party banned "jewish" physics doesn't mean that "jewish" science wasn't science.

You think science is a democracy? If 51% of scientists say the earth is flat, then it's flat? You think each nation has their own version of science built on consense of their own scientists?

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