THE SCIENCE OF SKEPTICISM

Scientists once thought illness was caused by “miasmas,” foul vapors that drifted through the air.

- BY NOUBAR AFEYAN

Medics assess a baby with measles symptoms in Spartanburg, S.C., on Jan. 30

For centuries, they were certain that the sun rotated around the Earth. Until the 1950s, they believed lobotomies were the best way to treat mental illness. Why did we stop believing these things? In each case, skeptics used the scientific method to produce data that disproved the incumbent theory.

They hypothesized, experimented, observed, analyzed, iterated, and then published the results, precipitating a shift in our collective understanding of the world. Doubt and debate are the prisms that test current ideas and help to generate new ones. Perhaps, then, it’s good that it’s now more popular than ever to be skeptical of science.

Yet this most recent wave of skepticism is different. Its loudest voices are making evidence-free claims about COVID, climate change, and vaccines. Presenting personal opinions as though they are facts, with no regard for experiments or data, makes a mockery of the scientific method.

This is profoundly dangerous. The scientific method is the most powerful tool humans have to change the world. It’s how we together convert the “unknown” to the “known,” resolving uncertainty and productively metabolizing scientific doubt when it arises.