User:Bayes/Essay:Bias in science

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Bias and Science

Some people are apparently under the impression that established scientific theories are heavily influenced by political leanings. Although the funding of scientific endeavors, and policy implementations based upon scientific findings, are political in nature, and therefore subject to bias, I contend that science as a discipline is not, and that all honest scientists will have the same findings, regardless of their personal beliefs.

Let me be clear that by "scientific theory," I mean an honest, falsifiable model of the observable (measurable) universe.

Reasoning

Science is limited by nature

Science is, at its core, the study of the natural world. Honest scientists cannot report any more than they actually observe. Attacking such scientists as "biased" is tantamount to saying that nature and reality themselves carry a bias.

Nature is consistent

One fundamental assumption of science is that laws of nature are the same everywhere in the universe. Injecting bias into scientific findings is therefore a dicey proposition, since findings can be verified simply by doing an experiment again. Frauds are eventually exposed for what they are, and as evidence for a theory accumulates, the chances that it is a fraud cleverly spun in a politically convenient way are reduced.

Consensus across political lines

If science had a political tilt, then we would expect the scientists of one political system to arrive at different conclusions than those of another. Did Soviet science arrive at drastically different conclusions than Western science during the Cold War? I don't know of any analysis on the subject, but my gut feeling is that the answer is "No." This is related to the above point; carbon atoms in Moscow behave the same way as carbon atoms in New York, so it's hard to imagine that the basic conclusions about carbon atoms would differ between the two locales.

Other kinds of bias in science

This argument does not intend to suggest that all features of science are immune to bias. Individual scientists are human beings, and they strive to become respected in their fields, win prizes, get funding, and may have other incentives. As such, they can be tempted, even unconsciously, to obtain or interpret conclusions that they "expect" to see. That kind of bias, while certainly a concern, diminishes as more and more evidence accumulates for a particular theory. Moreover, it applies to individuals or groups of fallible beings, and does not apply to the scientific discipline.