Prompt Cast
The Erosion of Expertise: Trusting Scientific Experts in a Biased World
TLDR The erosion of belief in experts and facts is a massive issue that encompasses climate change, existential risks, the pandemic, politics, and more, and is exacerbated by the existence of experts who perform sloppy or fraudulent science, leading to a lack of faith in expertise and objective facts. Biases in scientific studies, such as confirmation bias, sampling bias, survivorship bias, and more, also contribute to unreliable results and a lack of trust in scientific expertise.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
The episode discusses the erosion of expertise and the danger of not trusting scientific experts.
05:53
The erosion of belief in experts and facts is a massive issue that encompasses climate change, existential risks, the pandemic, politics, and more, and is exacerbated by the existence of experts who perform sloppy or fraudulent science, leading to a lack of faith in expertise and objective facts.
11:16
The existence of bias in scientific studies is a major issue that needs to be addressed in order for science to progress, as flawed human beings bring their biases and flaws into their research, leading to unreliable results and a lack of faith in scientific expertise.
16:44
Confirmation bias is a common human tendency to seek out information that confirms our beliefs and ignore contradictory information, which can lead to flawed research and unreliable results.
22:04
Sampling bias occurs when the sample set used in a study is not representative of the larger population, often due to small scale studies or recruiting from a specific group.
27:20
Survivorship bias occurs when only successful cases are studied, leading to an incomplete understanding of the subject, while channeling bias refers to the selection of participants based on their level of illness, which can skew the results of a study.
32:32
Question order bias and interviewer bias are two types of biases that can affect the outcome of a study, with question order bias occurring during the study design and interviewer bias emerging during the study itself.
37:47
Recall bias and acquiescence bias are two types of participant bias that can affect the outcome of a study, with recall bias occurring when participants recall irrelevant information and acquiescence bias occurring when participants agree with statements to appear agreeable.
43:08
Framing questions in a way that avoids judgment and provides a sense of comfort can help researchers avoid acquiescence bias.
48:41
The academic publishing industry has a stranglehold on science and favors studies with positive results, leading to a decline in the quality of scientific papers and a bias towards publishing only positive outcomes.
54:12
Publishing only studies with positive outcomes and burying negative outcomes is not only a waste of resources and missing out on the truth, but it also promotes poor quality studies and is unethical and potentially illegal.
59:29
The hosts discuss being included on the media bias list and express their appreciation for being ranked as politically fair.
Categories:
Society & Culture
