What Most Surprised Experts About The Pandemic Where One Response Is Actually Surprising
Because how could they not know?
One of my favourite science journalist, Helen Branswell (now with STAT), spent some time interviewing a bunch of experts about what they found surprising about the pandemic and our response.
It’s a great piece and it has likely led to ample head nodding, but there was one bit that really stuck out for me. According to at least one interviewed expert it was surprising to see how susceptible the public was to charlatans.
Really?
We all know a sucker is born every minute - careers and industries have been built on that unfortunate fact since time immemorial.
What’s surprising to me is that anyone could possibly think differently.
Putting aside whether it should have been surprising the far more important question is what can we do to reduce it in the future?
Not sure there’s any surefire solution, but what I would love to see, and what might help albeit a generation or two from now, would be the inculcation in schools, from K-12 of critical reasoning, statistics, and the identification of sophistry, not as their own courses, but as part of every aspect of school curricula, from language, to math, to science, to history, and everything in between, because clearly as a species we need a great deal of help herein.
Here’s hoping 2023 isn’t worse than 2022! Happy New Year!
This seems to be parallel to the argument for more knowledge in the face of structural challenges in the realms of personal finance, diet and exercise. The “more knowledge” approach only sticks if it is matched with a “more motivation” aspect to the messaging - an emotional desire to learn and apply the information. That is where charlatans win every time. Perhaps something akin to the “understand and avoid online scams” is needed to identify charlatan tactics in all of these spheres, since the tactics are very similar across the board. Not wanting to be a sucker can be a strong motivator for learning and applying such critical skills.
I couldn’t agree more!
The lack of critical thinking skills is frightening (and I use the word deliberately)! Living in Scotland, I was alarmed at the speed nonsense was so readily shared as “evidence” during lockdowns.
We live in dangerous enough times without charlatans entertaining themselves (and often lining their pockets to boot) at the expense of public safety. Here’s to a more rational 2023!