How can people deny the findings of scientific studies, without any proof to back their statements up?
Ever since I have been in graduate school, I have been shocked at people's reactions to experimental studies. Personally, I just do not see how a study that it pretty close to objective evidence can make people so irrate. From my end, I am just a researcher trying to understand a given social-psychological phenomenon. I have no real agenda beyond curiousity.
Two areas of my work seem to elicit the most anger from people who have read about my work online. The first are my studies that have anything to do with political topics, and the second are experiments where spiritual variables are tested. I could go into why those topics seems to be such "red-alarm" issues, but I am sure you all do not need me to do that.
So I suppose that leaves me with my final point. It is possible to refute a study based on faulty methods or outright lies from the researcher, or even to reason that you could see a slightly different version of the same study turning out differently. But unless that happens and is accurate, statements like, "this alleged study" are pretty silly to make (no matter how many media members like to say it). And further, results of an experiment cannot be "disproven" (as I have heard said) just by someone who you happen to think highly of saying, "I disagree with this study." Just because someone disagress (let alone because someone they value disagress) is not good enough to refute a finding that has been replicated many times. And simple disagreement does not, in itself, invalidate the results. What was found was found.
In other words, if I do a scientific experiment and someone like, oh I do not know, Bill O' Reilly, says "I do not agree with you" without any (empirical) proof or even reasoning on his end, then this does not invalidate scientific results. As I said, what was found was found. And even if he did have proof that runs counter the study, it is still very likely both of our studies (or even ideas) are valid, but we measured (or are thinking about even) slightly different things, or slightly different conditions.
