Submission + - Science turns authoritarian (american.com)
Attila Dimedici writes: This story suggests that one of the reasons that people have less trust in sientific pronouncements is because science reporting has stopped being a nuetral "Science has discovered..." and become more "Science says we must...". They tracked the usage of the following phrases using Lexis Nexis over the last 30 years:: "science says we must," "science says we should," "science tells us we must," "science tells us we should," "science commands," "science requires," "science dictates," and "science compels."
What they discovered was that the phrase "science tells us we must..." has increased in usage dramatically over that time frame. That increase was dramatically greater than that of the other phrases they searched for. The authors suggest that this increased usage of science to tell us what behaviors we should pursue (as opposed to earlier science reporting merely saying that "such and such behavior has this negative consequence" and allowing people to decide what action to take themselves based on that information) has damaged the credibility of science in the minds of the general public. Read the article yourselves and decide what you think of their hypothesis. http://www.american.com/archive/2010/july/science-turns-authoritarian
What they discovered was that the phrase "science tells us we must..." has increased in usage dramatically over that time frame. That increase was dramatically greater than that of the other phrases they searched for. The authors suggest that this increased usage of science to tell us what behaviors we should pursue (as opposed to earlier science reporting merely saying that "such and such behavior has this negative consequence" and allowing people to decide what action to take themselves based on that information) has damaged the credibility of science in the minds of the general public. Read the article yourselves and decide what you think of their hypothesis. http://www.american.com/archive/2010/july/science-turns-authoritarian