Barriers to the Acceptance of Science: "people believe stories over science"

It’s easy to become depressed by this trifecta of studies, but they really don’t paint a picture different than what we already knew – people believe stories over science and come to their conclusions mostly for evolved emotional, rather than dry rational, reasons.

Steven Novella takes a brief look at three recent studies that highlight the difficulty in communicating science to the public. Rather than becoming depressed at the intractability of human nature, I think there's a lesson to be learned here. While greater knowledge of science is highly desirable, it's crucial that we seek a way to make the scientific journey of discovery part of the stories we all tell each other. Much trickier than just spouting dry facts and authoritarian arguments at people, but in the end learning how to adopt science communication to human nature rather than overcome it will reward us with a society much more understanding and accepting of science with greater tolerance for both the hard work necessary to understand the scientific perspective and its limits.