Childhood Origins of Adult Resistance to Science

Resistance to certain scientific ideas derives in large part from assumptions and biases that can be demonstrated experimentally in young children and that may persist into adulthood. In particular, both adults and children resist acquiring scientific information that clashes with common-sense intui...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) 2007-05, Vol.316 (5827), p.996-997
Main Authors: Bloom, Paul, Weisberg, Deena Skolnick
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Adult
Adulthood
Adults
Bias
Bioethics
Biological and medical sciences
Biological Evolution
Brain - physiology
Child
Child development
Child psychology
Children
Children & youth
Cognition. Intelligence
Common sense
Culture
Developmental psychology
Folk psychology
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Humans
Intuition
Learning
Miscellaneous
Neurosciences
Origins
Political ideologies
Psychological aspects
Psychology
Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry
Psychology. Psychophysiology
Resists
Reviews
Science - education
Social psychology
Trust
Trustworthiness
United States
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Summary:Resistance to certain scientific ideas derives in large part from assumptions and biases that can be demonstrated experimentally in young children and that may persist into adulthood. In particular, both adults and children resist acquiring scientific information that clashes with common-sense intuitions about the physical and psychological domains. Additionally, when learning information from other people, both adults and children are sensitive to the trustworthiness of the source of that information. Resistance to science, then, is particularly exaggerated in societies where nonscientific ideologies have the advantages of being both grounded in common sense and transmitted by trustworthy sources.
ISSN:0036-8075
1095-9203
DOI:10.1126/science.1133398