Science has had a good run, establishing a reputation of progress and fact-finding ever since the enlightenment. However, it sometimes seems that some may pick some parts of science to respect and others which can be cast aside with little more than cursory analysis. It turns out that how one characterizes their own identity can impact the credence they give to science.
Peter Nauroth, a German research scientist, and his colleagues have conducted a social experiment to probe how one’s self-identity might influence their perception of science and scientists. I’ll talk about that experiment and the general attitudes that people seem to have when science intrudes on their own worlds.