There’s a science behind why people deny science.
Enter Michael Goldsby, a philosophy professor at Washington State University who is working to understand the logic behind why people deny science and the cascade of effects this has on society.
Anyone who has engaged in a discussion with someone who rejects the scientific facts surrounding an argument will feel like they’re “playing a game of whack-a-mole,” said Goldsby. No matter what you say, “they will come up with an alternative that keeps their theory intact.”
His recent research has shown that this type of reasoning erodes an individual’s ability to make predictions about what is going to happen in the future. For example, someone who believes in the theory of climate change knows that measurable data — such as rising sea levels and retreating glaciers — will confirm their theory and that it would be disconfirmed if the opposite were to