SCIENCE
...Data--By only accepting data that can be reproduced, science assures itself that its data are reliable. So, when some new discovery is made, the first thing that happens is that others attempt to reproduce that discovery. The "cold fusion" episode of a few years ago is a good example. Two chemists claimed they had observed fusion at room temperature. But, when others attempted to reproduce those results, they could not. Thus, cold fusion is not accepted as a scientific finding. Intellectual freedom--One of the biggest advantages of science, but one that is not always lived up to, is intellectual freedom, the intellectual freedom to go where the data lead. In science, one's opinions, hopes, and desires for how some data from a study may turn out count for nothing next to the data themselves. For example, let's say that I am a scientist who believes that people with red hair have lower levels of intelligence. So, I conduct an experiment, but I find that the intelligence of red-haired people is no less than that of non-red-headed people. Now, as a scientist, I have to believe my data not my opinion . DISADVANTAGES OF SCIENCE But, there are disadvantages to science too. Some of them are the consequence of the advantages described earlier. Information overload--This one is a good example of the unforeseen consequences of the advantage of rapid communication. Sometimes when I open my electronic mail in the morning I may have over 100 messages waiting for me, and that is not a lot. Some people may have thousands waiting for them. Or, I could go to a scientific meeting every week, but I doubt my employer would let me, because someone else would have to handle my courses. Or, I could buy every journal and book in psychology published this year, but I would never have the time to read them all, nor could I afford to pay for them all. There is information out there all right, too much information. Fortunately, there are ways of minimizing your time searching through all of this information. Many schools now have a way to search on computer all the journals and books published in psychology since 1973. That service is called PsychLIT, and is usually available at the library. PsychLIT will allow you to key in a topic, and then it will search for those words and report the results of its search back to you. If you key in "Learned Helplessness," you will get back many article titles that deal with that interesting topic. Scientific fraud--Sometimes scientists cheat. They report results that they did not obtain. In other words, they make up the data. Such activity undermines the entire structure of science, so when fraud is discovered, a scientist may lose his/her position or worse. Some have even had to face criminal charges. Scientific fraud usually occurs because of the pressures to achieve results, and is rare (we hope). Anti-scientific bias--Not so long ago, American society held a different view of science than it does today. Scientists were held in high e...