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Science Says is a popular catchphrase amongst news outlets and “educational” content trying to lend credence to particular claims. I know it particularly in connection to rather dubious, questionable “news stories” or content creators and has a kind of reputation for being wholly wrong more often than not. A perfect example is this YouTube video about the game DEFCON: DEFCON scares me and science says it will scare you too. A similar repeat offender of this kind of stuff is the ubiquitous pop-science YouTube channel Kurzgesagt.
The problems with Science Says
1. Science doesn't say shit.
Science isn't a living person. If anything they mean “scientists say”, and even scientists more often than not will not say things. A scientist is a person who tests falsifiable hypotheses in experiments that adhere to the scientific method. These experiments will lead to observations, and these observations are basically data. Data, even less so than scientists, will definitely not say things, and it definitely does not mean things. Data is not causality, and it rarely is correlation. It takes knowledge and context and understanding of a field to properly assess that data to draw conclusions. Rarely does the data speak for itself. “Science” in this context is misused by people who do not understand the science to appeal to authority. Especially the younger population is easy to impress with “science” [To be continued]