Article Politics has poisoned science. Philanthropy can help provide the cure. (survey data) - Printable Version +- Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum (https://www.scivillage.com) +-- Forum: Science (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-61.html) +--- Forum: Ergonomics, Statistics & Logistics (https://www.scivillage.com/forum-78.html) +--- Thread: Article Politics has poisoned science. Philanthropy can help provide the cure. (survey data) (/thread-16485.html)

Politics has poisoned science. Philanthropy can help provide the cure. (survey data) - C C - Sep 13, 2024 https://www.philanthropyroundtable.org/politics-has-poisoned-science-philanthropy-can-help-provide-the-cure/ INTRO: Science has lost its way, and it’s been a story decades in the making. The COVID-19 pandemic brought this detour into sharp focus, accelerating the credibility gap and contributing to a rising loss of public trust in science. A Pew Research poll from 2023 found trust in scientists declined by 14-percentage points during the pandemic. The political divide has become even more pronounced as well. A 2021 Gallup poll found 86% of Democrats reported having a high trust in science compared to only 37% of Republicans. What’s more, distrust of science is closely correlated to distrust of other institutions.  Findings from the Survey Center on American Life at the American Enterprise Institute concluded that COVID-19 vaccination status correlates to trust in government, the news media, the academy and religious and scientific organizations. The problems at the core of science are complicated and multi-faceted. Experts interviewed by Philanthropy Roundtable identified several top reasons: The pressure to conform to conventional wisdom has never been higher. Career bureaucrats now run the government and outlast presidential administrations. Research funding is closely tied to the National Institute of Health (NIH), leading scientists to choose research topics carefully to avoid conflicting with the NIH. Peer-review journals have become “pay-to-play” publications where unbiased science is crowded out. “At the end of the day, science should not have an ebb and flow. We may learn new things, but it should not be ignored just based on politics,” said Jacob Traverse, president and CEO of the Center for Truth in Science. “If that’s the truth of the science, and the evidence supports it, the decisions should reflect that. Often, we see that’s not the case.” [...] “A better approach is to donate to researchers who are doing the kind of research you feel is good,” Prasad said. “One of the challenges if you donate to a place like Harvard or Johns Hopkins is you don’t know if the money will be used for something that you disagree with, or that defies common sense, or an agenda you didn’t sign up for.” [...] “There’s been a long-term effort, particularly at the NIH, to encourage minorities to be involved in science. And I think that encouragement is fine,” said Do No Harm’s Goldfarb. “But the way they’ve gone about it has been problematic. It’s based on the idea that we’re going to have a better scientific workforce if it’s more diverse, which on its surface is an absurdity. Scientific research is about individual intellectual capability. It’s about dogged pursuit of goals. It’s about working really hard. It’s not about anything else.” (MORE - details)