Reddit forum comments reveal concerning trends about Science

The fact that many Redditors who frequent this subreddit have a negative opinion of scientists in general should be noted after all of that has been said and done.

Reddit forum comments reveal concerning trends about Science

People’s opinions can vary from site to site on the internet because it is a very large space. Reddit forum is one of the forums where the largest group of internet users tend to gather, making it a useful location to carry out experiments that can reveal the perceptions and viewpoints of the average user.

When the comments on the Reddit subreddit r/science were analyzed for a study by Public Understanding Science, some worrying trends emerged.

The fact that many Redditors who frequent this subreddit have a negative opinion of scientists in general should be noted after all of that has been said and done. Particularly harsh criticism is levelled at social sciences like psychology, with some even going so far as to label them as pseudoscience that is less useful than it might otherwise have been.

Over 177,000 comments that were posted over a three-year period were examined in the study. Because this type of thing has the potential to make it more difficult for people to understand a scientist’s findings, it is one of the most common criticisms levelled against scientists.

Additionally, a lot of people on the Reddit forum are asserting that science somehow lacks empiricism and is biased. It’s important to keep in mind that, after everything was taken into account, science journalists were frequently the target of this criticism.

There is obviously a trust crisis here, and more needs to be done to help the public understand and contextualize scientific findings. Science is now more widely available than ever, thanks to the internet. Scientists used to only have to worry about communicating with one another, but today’s environment is very different from that.

Currently, the general public lacks the knowledge required to comprehend scientific discoveries. There needs to be a paradigm shift to make science news more digestible, as clickbait headlines and other forms of misdirection are on the rise. Otherwise, this lack of confidence will only spread.