5 ms·

I've experienced this first-hand. I'm an author on a fairly big-impact SARS-CoV-2 paper and made the mistake of looking what people were tweeting about it. Peo

I've experienced this first-hand. I'm an author on a fairly big-impact SARS-CoV-2 paper and made the mistake of looking what people were tweeting about it. People are referencing it as evidence that vaccines are weakening the immune system and posting links to the paper to make it appear like a legitimate scientific claim, despite the paper saying nothing of the sort (pretty much the opposite actually). I don't know if it's malicious and they're relying on the typical anti-vax twitter user not reading or understanding the article, or just lack of scientific-literacy and they've genuinely misinterpreted it.

amitport 5y ago
It's mostly stupidity and blind faith IMO. Most of those posts are reshares and its hard to find who actually was the first to refer to a paper. I once saw such a claim from antivaxers on Facebook and decided to try and read the paper although I'm not an epidemiologist... So first of all the paper was behind a paywall, second, it was written in Spanish (which I and the poster do not read), third, already in the abstract it said the opposite of what the Facebook poster claimed... It's all just a waste of energy really. They just search for titles that sound like they support them and do not bother considering who wrote it, where was it published, or even what does it say in the abstract. It seems that no one is even close to actually reading a paper and evaluating its merits.
dgb23 5y ago
People get a kind of power and influence over others when they achieve to create an aura of credibility. Typically this is paired with strong, oversimplified or even false claims. People want to hear it and believe it, so abusers get to reign. This is very typical and likely most problematic in politics. Cults are a smaller but often more extreme instance. The root of the problem is three headed: For one, there is simply not enough respect for education. It’s seen as a cost center and the best education is reserved for a small elite and education is too rigid overall, when it should be a flexible part of our lives through a much larger era. Secondly, there are perverse incentives and little accountability. Abusers are rewarded with power and very rarely do they take real responsibility. Third, there are many who feel disconnected, because they are. They get lied to, manipulated and exploited from all sides. Seen as resources instead of real human beings.
Blikkentrekker 5y ago
I see this all the time, but more indirectly. People having, often quite politicized claims, and referencing popular science news articles to back them up, which reference actual results, when scrutinized tell quite a different story than the popular news articles' liberal interpretation.
angelzen 5y ago
The Internet has trained us to take out-of-context citations to an art form. People scan the text looking for matches to their pre-existing convictions and largely ignore everything else.

amitport 5y ago

It's mostly stupidity and blind faith IMO. Most of those posts are reshares and its hard to find who actually was the first to refer to a paper. I once saw such a claim from antivaxers on Facebook and decided to try and read the paper although I'm not an epidemiologist... So first of all the paper was behind a paywall, second, it was written in Spanish (which I and the poster do not read), third, already in the abstract it said the opposite of what the Facebook poster claimed... It's all just a waste of energy really. They just search for titles that sound like they support them and do not bother considering who wrote it, where was it published, or even what does it say in the abstract. It seems that no one is even close to actually reading a paper and evaluating its merits.

dgb23 5y ago

People get a kind of power and influence over others when they achieve to create an aura of credibility. Typically this is paired with strong, oversimplified or even false claims. People want to hear it and believe it, so abusers get to reign. This is very typical and likely most problematic in politics. Cults are a smaller but often more extreme instance. The root of the problem is three headed: For one, there is simply not enough respect for education. It’s seen as a cost center and the best education is reserved for a small elite and education is too rigid overall, when it should be a flexible part of our lives through a much larger era. Secondly, there are perverse incentives and little accountability. Abusers are rewarded with power and very rarely do they take real responsibility. Third, there are many who feel disconnected, because they are. They get lied to, manipulated and exploited from all sides. Seen as resources instead of real human beings.

Blikkentrekker 5y ago

I see this all the time, but more indirectly. People having, often quite politicized claims, and referencing popular science news articles to back them up, which reference actual results, when scrutinized tell quite a different story than the popular news articles' liberal interpretation.

angelzen 5y ago

The Internet has trained us to take out-of-context citations to an art form. People scan the text looking for matches to their pre-existing convictions and largely ignore everything else.