Citizen Science #26 by Jamie Zvirzdin

Solving the Mystery of the Vanishing Love for Science

This year we are examining great mysteries in physics, but we must first address a much more serious mystery: What is causing so many American citizens to turn their backs on the scientific method? Why are they dismissing and deriding the hard-won, life-saving, Earth-protecting, universe-expanding knowledge we have already earned—knowledge that has cost us dearly?

My hypothesis: Increased fear and distrust lead people to seek increased control in their lives, or at least the appearance of control. Fear and distrust make people crave certainty and unquestioning loyalty, and science—by its nature—embraces the opposite: uncertainty, revision, complexity, and scrutiny. No one is above being wrong, not even a venerated, quasi-worshipped physicist like Einstein. We just conveniently forget how often he was wrong, an example of confirmation bias (Citizen Science #7).

If someone is already feeling powerless, whether because of real threats or media-fueled outrage or panic, the human instinct to fight, flee or freeze kicks in. Constant exposure to heightened emotions fed to us through screens triggers the amygdala in our brains to act rashly over and over again, hijacking the prefrontal cortex—the part of the brain responsible for logic, long-term planning, and self-control.