logical thing to ask because what you
believe underlies what you do and your
actions have consequences
so to a very large extent what happens
to you is related to what you believe
sometimes there is a very linear
relationship
for instance you believe vaccines are
not necessary so you don’t vaccinate
your kid and your kid gets sick
sometimes the relationship is not so
clear but still your beliefs are the
frame through which you experience the
world everything that happens to you
makes sense to the extent that it fits
with your beliefs this is a very
important issue but you could also ask
me not what do I believe but why do I
believe and this is a very important
question too and I think it’s a more
difficult one to answer because we don’t
paid much attention to it but why we
accept some beliefs and reject other
beliefs is the gatekeeper that formed
that body of beliefs that will help us
make sense of the world today I want to
talk to you about how we form beliefs in
relationship to science what happens
when this gatekeeping system goes wrong
and we accept beliefs that are false or
reject beliefs that are true and why
this is important I wish I could finish
this talk with some nice in these
instructions about how to keep this
system working perfectly well but I’m
afraid that the best that I can do is to
give you a couple of ideas for you to
think about so let’s start belief is
based on trust you trust some people you
trust some organizations and you believe
what they say if you think of it most of
what you believe about science you have
acquired that way right of course I’m
aware that this is a university right so
a few of you in the audience will
believe things that you have discovered
yourselves in that case congratulations
but still this is a small part of all
the things that you believe
all science so belief makes us trust
makes us believe and we counterbalance
trust with skepticism skepticism is a
temporary suspension of belief and it
makes us doubt and sometimes it makes us
doubt to the point that we abandon some
belief altogether and in science did
this happens all the time we used to
believe that gastric ulcers were caused
by stress but evidence made us abandon
that belief and believe that most
gastric ulcers are caused by a bacterial
infection
so this happens all the time in science
and it is no big deal right so we
combine trust and skepticism and that is
how we more or less form and abandon
beliefs but scepticism is not the same
for everybody everywhere there are
different degrees of certificate
sophistication of of skepticism
professional scientists who are doing
research in some particular field of
expertise and who are experts in that
field use what Robert K Merton called
organized skepticism and this means that
they apply the practical and theoretical
tools of science to the solution of some
scientific problem and this is I’m sure
that some of you will be doing science
actively and you know that this is a
highly technical process and only a few
people can do it for any particular
field of expertise so most of us most of
the time are not experts and we cannot
use organized skepticism because we
don’t know what are the right questions
maybe it happened to you I’m sure and
certainly it happened to me to attend a
seminar on something that is very
interesting but I’m not an expert say
gene editing using CRISPR right so at
the end of the seminar do you have some
concerns you want to ask and you raise
your hand and you ask oh are you going
to use gene editing to
to extend longevity well that’s an
interesting question but it’s a broad
question it’s not a highly technical
question if you are an expert in the
field you will ask about this mutation
in this gene having an effect on this
seller pathway extending the lifespan of
these organisms so in reality these are
like two different kinds of
conversations the expert conversation
and the layman conversation which is all
of us most of the time so for most of
the things that worry us we have to
resort to the experts when we are
concerned about something we have to ask
the experts so I don’t know if you’ve
read the news this morning there’s this
new therapy for colon cancer so of
course I believe it I congratulate the
researchers I’m happy for them wish them
all the best in their clinical trials I
take this belief and put it away
somewhere
of course it’s open to revision so we’ll
see what happens but today I believe it
I’m fine with that
this system sometimes goes wrong and it
goes wrong when you don’t have trust in
the experts then this equilibrium goes
all the way and skepticism becomes an
absolute position so when you don’t
trust the experts things still happen to
you and you still have to explain the
things that happen to you but if you
don’t believe the explanations that the
experts provide you will make up your
own or you will believe something that
somebody else tells you and these leads
very easily to conspiratorial thinking
because of course you know that the
expression of the truth but they’re not
telling they are having the truth and
they are telling some story that nobody
wants to believe so this is I think this
is a problem actually and I would like
to tell you why I think there are three
types of conspiracy theories that
involve science one way or another this
is not a formal academic classification
it’s just a way of highlighting some
items that I find interesting for
discussion so please burn me out for
instance we have chemtrails right some
people believe that certain type of
clouds in the sky are some poison that
the bad guys are dropping on us if any
of us has any doubt about something that
is in the sky we could call some
meteorological institution and they will
be happy to answer our questions and
will tell us exactly what this clouds
are but if you don’t trust the expert
you will not call them and instead you
will believe something that somebody
sends you on the internet or by facebook
or whatever so people who believe in
contrails they still believe that clouds
are made of water it’s just not those
particular type of clouds so basically
what they do is that they ignore the
explanation provided by science other
conspiracy theorists are using bad
science and for instance this would be
the opposition to cold and rise by some
pressure groups probably you heard about
Golden Rice it’s been around for some 20
years this is a variety of rice that’s
been genetically modified to improve the
intake of vitamin A and prevent
blindness in children living in
countries where they don’t have easy
access to other foodstuffs that would
keep them vitamin A this is a project
that has been developed mostly in the
public sector it’s given for free for
humanitarian purposes so anyway you want
to look at this it is a good project
from the science point of view from the
society point of view but some people
oppose it because it’s GM right it’s
genetically modified food and they see
some dark motives behind it there’s a
conspiracy behind it and because they
cannot fight what is apparent they use
bad science by bad science I mean
incomplete experiments cherry-picking of
data all these tricks that people used
to deceive ourselves onto the ship
others and that are also present in
regular science from time to time we see
examples and we could talk about that of
bad science going on in laboratories
here but science is used to support a
conspiracy theory a third kind of
conspiracy theories involve
pseudoscience the pseudoscience is
something that looks like science but it
is not science
mostly because it refuses to put their
beliefs to the test and it refuses to
give up their beliefs when the evidence
shows that they’re false so something
that is a commonplace in labs all over
the world that you have some belief you
do some experiments and then you are
forced to abandon that believe because
the experiments tell you so when we’re
dealing with pseudoscience did this
doesn’t happen right and in particular
the medicine there are several belief
systems that you know probably you know
from apathy and acupuncture and Reiki
and aromatherapy
a very long list of belief systems that
try to explain disease and health and
the body using some some beliefs that
are contradictory with all the other
beliefs that we have based on chemistry
and biology and physics when you have to
believe that are contradictory you have
to put them to the test and abandon one
of them that what we do every day in the
lab but if you refuse to put this belief
to the test then you are abandoning
science altogether and at the same time
this generates a conspiracy thinking you
know medical conspiracy that they don’t
want you to use this this practice this
medical practice that is so so safe and
effective and also pharma conspiracy you
know the pharma companies don’t want to
develop drugs for these or that disease
because they don’t I mean they want you
to die they didn’t want to cure you so
this is a conspiracy thinking that goes
linked with pseudoscience this is a very
quick overview of things that go wrong
when people form beliefs that about the
world that are not based on science and
I think this is a problem I mean if this
was just people wearing tinfoil hats to
protect themselves against Wi-Fi
radiation and posting pictures of clouds
on Instagram I wouldn’t waste one minute
on it but this is more serious than that
a lot more serious than that in there
are people in positions of power who
believe that climate change is a hoax
and based on that belief they put in
place actions that will have very
serious consequences for all of us there
are celebrities and influencers and
people
plenty of followers who are campaigning
against vaccinations or are promoting
pseudo medicines and that has very
serious consequences that we can see all
around us daily some you know food and
health gurus that you know that profit
from the vulnerability of people when
they are sick we see this all the time
I have to confess that I am a pessimist
and I believe that science conspiracies
will be with us forever
but I also believe that we have to try
to reduce the damage that they caused so
we we have to engage but how do we
engage and anyway who are we we refers
to scientists people at the edge of
knowledge generating new beliefs but
also to people who are not scientists
but who can I mean they can have
legitimate concerns about science and
technology but they appreciate the role
of critical thinking and they appreciate
the fact that if you don’t feel prepared
to accept evidence contrary to your
beliefs then there is no limit to what
you believe you will believe anything
but we are also journalists who are the
gatekeepers that give presents and
credibility to conspiracy theorists and
most of all teachers at all levels
because critical thinking is something
that needs to be nurtured and developed
through all the stages of life but how
do we engage I think there is something
that we can learn from conspiracy
theories in science it is because they
are based on fear and that shows us what
people are afraid of ok I’m not aware of
any conspiracy theory that involves X
planets or junk DNA
and it doesn’t surprise me because I’ve
never met anyone who was afraid of
exoplanets or junk DNA but I’ve met
plenty of people who were afraid of gene
manipulation or not having a medicine
when they needed or not having clean
water even people who are afraid of
becoming poorer because of some
environmental regulation to reduce co2
emissions so these are fears that we
cannot dismiss even if they are not
based on scientific evidence I I told
you that I would finish by giving you a
couple of ideas and so well here is one
we cannot underestimate the importance
of emotions when we form beliefs science
conspiracies are based on fear and fear
disrupt equilibrium with interest and
skepticism and takes it all the way to
one extreme so we can try to bring that
extreme skepticism to a point where it
is a manageable skepticism and for that
you cannot use data I mean somebody
who’s afraid of gene manipulation will
never be reassured no matter how much
experimental evidence you put in front
of them so you have to use emotions not
rational arguments I wish I knew how to
do that so I leave it to you and the
second idea is that conspiracy theories
in science put a spotlight on where we
have failed where we can do a better job
there is a lot to improve in
communication but not just communication
of results communication of motives
communication of means methods there is
also a lot to improve in in how we
prioritize research projects why we want
to promote these line of research and
not that line of research and linked to
that also we have a lot to improve in
terms of transparency we know that we
work well but we have to make sure that
everybody knows that we work
sometimes we give it for granted and
also and central to everything of course
is education critical thinking is not
just something for scientists critical
thinking is at the core of the
gatekeeping system that allows everyone
else to believe things that are at least
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