Scientific literacy is a rather noble ideal. Achieving it, however, is problematic thanks to our tribal brains. If science is equated with knowledge, then communicating facts, figures, and theories should be a way to increase the public’s level of engagement with it. However, this boils down to the authority distributing the information. Who do you listen to when there are conflicting sources? Our brain’s desire for certainty and its tendency to evaluate new information based on social clues means anybody painted as an expert, who sounds confident, shares our values and flatters our expectations, is more likely to win over our opinion..regardless of the scientific merits of their argument. Mike McRae
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Using scientific literacy to educate people in a way that stimulates their minds without being too technical. Too much technical information in the classroom may lead to students to have have less interest in the subject because they are not interested in science. The teacher should be able to inform the students in a way that they will be able to understand the information, but not get bored of it.

Source: Tribal Science: Brains, Beliefs, And Bad Ideas

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More Quotes By Mike McRae
  1. Scientific literacy is a rather noble ideal. Achieving it, however, is problematic thanks to our tribal brains. If science is equated with knowledge, then communicating facts, figures, and theories should be a way to increase the public’s level of engagement with it. However, this boils...
  2. Sadly, because of our tribal brains, science carries a hefty cost. Treasured ideas that are loved by the community may be left behind, unable to compete with conflicting observations. Admired heroes may be found to have been mistaken. Years of hard work can amount to...
  3. While science can be many things, above all it is a way for our mistake-making, illusion-prone, storytelling brains to compare different methods for describing nature.
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