{"id":25977,"date":"2025-07-07T17:06:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.carnisostenibili.it\/?p=25977"},"modified":"2025-07-07T17:06:17","modified_gmt":"2025-07-07T15:06:17","slug":"beyond-ignorance-understanding-resistance-to-scientific-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.carnisostenibili.it\/en\/beyond-ignorance-understanding-resistance-to-scientific-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"Beyond Ignorance: Understanding Resistance to Scientific Messages"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Science communication is essential: scientists and institutions must address and counter misinformation from lobbyists and extremist groups.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scientific communication is becoming increasingly important, and scientists and institutions must acknowledge the need to confront dangerous ideas<\/strong> and counter misinformation spread through multiple sources, including commercial lobbies and fundamentalist groups<\/strong>. A significant example of the public\u2019s poor understanding of science comes from a Wellcome Trust study from a few years ago, which found that only 9% of respondents correctly understood the meaning of antibiotic resistance<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communicating effectively requires us to understand why a message may encounter resistance. And this is our main point: understanding why scientific messages are met with resistance and, therefore, not understood<\/strong>. Although there are debates over who is responsible for this ignorance<\/strong> \u2014 scientists, communicators, journalists, or the public itself \u2014 reducing it to a mere lack of knowledge is simplistic<\/strong>. If ignorance were the only problem, the solution would be simple: increase education and information. Unfortunately, there are deeper obstacles related to trust, emotions, and organised disinformation<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem runs even deeper: according to some scholars, it has roots in psychology and human evolution<\/strong>. One study analysed the motivations of parents who refuse to vaccinate their children and found that, to avoid cognitive dissonance and preserve bonds with their social group<\/strong>, people tend to align their perception of risk with that of their group. These biases can even become stronger as scientific literacy increases<\/strong>, which clearly explains the effectiveness of pseudoscience<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then there\u2019s individual psychology<\/strong>, which affects how we perceive risk and receive messages. Risk<\/strong>, for example, is difficult for all humans to assess. If you want to understand how easily our judgement<\/strong> can be influenced by seemingly trivial factors<\/strong>, try reading \u201cThinking, Fast and Slow<\/a>\u201d by Daniel Kahneman<\/strong>. In the book, Kahneman presents numerous examples of cognitive bias in the evaluation of risk and data, especially those related to science<\/strong>. There is no single solution, but developing critical thinking from early childhood<\/strong> could be a crucial step for the future.
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Source: Newsletter EAAP n. 275<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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