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Intellectual humility could win back much-needed trust in science, study finds
Scientists could win back trust lost during the COVID-19 pandemic if they just showed a little intellectual humility, according to a study published Monday in Nature Human Behavior.
It's no secret that scientists—and the science generally—took a hit during the health crisis. Public confidence in scientists fell from 87 percent in April 2000 to a low of 73 percent in October 2023, according to survey data from the Pew Research Center. And the latest Pew data released last week suggests it will be an uphill battle to regain what was lost, with confidence in scientists only rebounding three percentage points, to 76 percent in a poll from October.

Building trust

The new study in Nature Human Behavior may guide the way forward, though. The study encompasses five smaller studies probing the perceptions of scientists' trustworthiness, which previous research has linked to willingness to follow research-based recommendations.
Schumann and her colleagues homed in on the role of intellectual humility. Unlike general humility, intellectual humility focuses on the limitations of one's knowledge. Specifically, a scientist with high intellectual humility would show a willingness to admit gaps in their knowledge, listen to input from others, and update their views based on new evidence. These characteristics may be viewed by the public as particularly critical among scientists, given that science is rife with uncertainties and lacks complete and unequivocal conclusions, especially from individual studies.
There's also good reason to think that scientists may be doing a poor job of displaying intellectual humility. The latest survey data from Pew found that 47 percent of Americans perceive scientists as feeling superior to others, and 52 percent indicated that scientists communicate poorly.
Any one got A. Faucci's email?~~
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11 sats \ 0 replies \ @ch0k1 19 Nov
Unfortunately, I'm also a victim of this fraud and the bad thing is it's in the most troubling way - can't trust doctors and medicine anymore which can play me a dirty tricks someday 😢
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Maybe just stop spreading false information, stop forcing people to do things, stop lying. But hey, I'm not an expert.
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