Fake science studies
On page 8 of the Friday, June 14, 2024 edition of The Japan Times print newspaper, this photograph accompanied the Opinion essay, “Fake scientific studies are a growing problem that’s getting harder to solve,” from the privately-held Bloomberg financial, software, data, and media company headquartered in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. Parasitic paper mills producing fake studies are flourishing by helping scientists cheat to bolster their resumes, snag competitive academic jobs and impress funding agencies.
I have a British acquaintance who is a diehard vegan/pharmaceutical/COVID/lifestyle conspiracist. He never stops talking about it, like a broken record. It’s the foundation of his being. Despite being a seasoned adult with a university education, he is peculiarly poised to fall for false information through a profound ignorance of the world and a total lack of any mature Critical Thinking ability and a distrust of, or lack of faith in proven facts. Pseudo-science, fake research, false information and discredited authority are all easy fuel for his dementia. Trying to have a conversation with him about his passionate interests is like arguing with a ten-year-old in that his contribution to the conversation is more often than not an endless stream of “But how do we know?” questions. I firmly believe in healthy skepticism, but I also believe in Science and third-party confirmation. Even after I explain to him how we know certain things with confidence, he still rejects them and their proofs.
Pseudo-science, fake research, false information and discredited authority are all easy fuel for his dementia.
He’s a nice guy, but his excessively narrow interests make him as dumb as a rock about most things - things in which he has no interest (current events are a good example) - and I might say that his stubbornness renders him intellectually dishonest.
But, maybe he thinks something similar about me.