seemed to have the belief that if they conceded any mistakes, or publicly criticized anyone else within the field, than it would immediately get reported on right-wing news media and provide “fodder for skeptics” etc. (And that belief was totally true!)
Yup, same problem as with vaccines. Everyone tends to downplay side effects when they happen for fear they’ll stoke the anti-vaxx movement. But ultimately that sort of “lying for a good cause” thing still gets you screwed over, because people aren’t so stupid as to not notice, and if they think you’re biased they’ll believe you even less than they should.
I get the sense that this is also part of what for example set up the current backlash about transition therapy, puberty blockers etc. Even though the science may all be solid, the political heft attached to it is such that it’s hard to imagine that a study pushing in the other direction wouldn’t risk some self-censorship, or some pushback from journals. All done with the intent of trying to normalize the treatment as much as possible, since its adoption rates were likely suboptimal anyway, of course; but it resulted in reduced trust and so now there’s a large swath of people who feel motivated in not believing any of it. It’s a pattern that comes up again and again (happened with multiple things involving COVID too).
Yup, same problem as with vaccines. Everyone tends to downplay side effects when they happen for fear they’ll stoke the anti-vaxx movement. But ultimately that sort of “lying for a good cause” thing still gets you screwed over, because people aren’t so stupid as to not notice, and if they think you’re biased they’ll believe you even less than they should.
I get the sense that this is also part of what for example set up the current backlash about transition therapy, puberty blockers etc. Even though the science may all be solid, the political heft attached to it is such that it’s hard to imagine that a study pushing in the other direction wouldn’t risk some self-censorship, or some pushback from journals. All done with the intent of trying to normalize the treatment as much as possible, since its adoption rates were likely suboptimal anyway, of course; but it resulted in reduced trust and so now there’s a large swath of people who feel motivated in not believing any of it. It’s a pattern that comes up again and again (happened with multiple things involving COVID too).