{"id":435,"date":"2019-03-18T19:45:35","date_gmt":"2019-03-18T19:45:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/big10-friends-paper-workshop-2019\/?page_id=435"},"modified":"2019-04-04T16:09:29","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T16:09:29","slug":"robert-bird-u-connecticut","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/big10-friends-paper-workshop-2019\/robert-bird-u-connecticut\/","title":{"rendered":"Robert Bird, U Connecticut"},"content":{"rendered":"

How Does Scientific Fact become Fiction?: Evidence from the Anti-GMO Movemen<\/strong>t<\/em><\/p>\n

Distorted science directly impacts law and policy. Climate change deniers and organizations that support them have used distorted science to suppress policy steps to control man-made global warning.\u00a0 Other hot-button partisan disagreements such as illegal immigration and fracking are driven in part by distorted scientific claims. Billion-dollar accountable care programs that claim to improve quality and reduce cost by incentivizing physicians are justified by poorly designed studies that make headlines while the best available evidence shows these programs aren\u2019t effective. Scientific data and public policy choice are thus intertwined, with science informing policy decisions and policy preferences encouraging the focus on scientific inquiry.<\/p>\n

While the consequences of distorted science are understood, how facts become myth remains unclear. There are numerous possible culprits. Some scientists falsify their own findings for professional gain.\u00a0 Information intermediaries such as publishers and the press have been criticized for poorly conveying scientific knowledge. Lawmakers serving political interests disrupt scientific initiatives that would better inform regulatory policy. Consumers, overloaded with information and susceptible to misapprehension, can easily misinterpret scientific facts. At virtually every link in the information supply chain, there is ample opportunity for original science to be disfigured in service of a personal agenda. It is the task of academics, in multiple disciplines and especially law, to stem the tide. The first step is to understand more precisely how scientific fact becomes fiction.<\/p>\n

This article explores how fact becomes fiction through a case study of a single claim: the consumption of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) causes autism in humans. This claim is especially valuable for study because it sits at the intersection of two of the most controversial issues in public health. A worldwide movement fiercely opposes GMOs, which attributes illnesses ranging from cancer to food poisoning to consumption of genetically modified products.\u00a0 A similarly worldwide movement aggressively blames numerous practices, most notably vaccines, as causes of autism spectrum disorder.\u00a0Pairing the two as cause and consequence enables a unique opportunity to observe the shaping the scientific knowledge by social movements that are both deeply influential and robustly science-skeptical.<\/p>\n

Bird BTF GMO draft 3.29.19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How Does Scientific Fact become Fiction?: Evidence from the Anti-GMO Movement Distorted science directly impacts law and policy. Climate change deniers and organizations that support them have used distorted science … Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":217,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-435","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nRobert Bird, U Connecticut - Big Ten and Friends Paper Workshop 2019<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sites.rutgers.edu\/big10-friends-paper-workshop-2019\/robert-bird-u-connecticut\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Robert Bird, U Connecticut - Big Ten and Friends Paper Workshop 2019\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"How Does Scientific Fact become Fiction?: Evidence from the Anti-GMO Movement Distorted science directly impacts law and policy. 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