Ask Slashdot: Why Does Science Appear To Be Getting Things Increasingly Wrong?

azaris writes: Recent revelations of heavily policy-driven or even falsified science have raised concern in the general public, but especially in the scientific community itself. It's not purely a question of political or commercial interference either (as is often claimed when it comes to e.g. climate research) — scientists themselves are increasingly incentivized to game the system for improved career prospects, more funding, or simply because they perceive everyone else to do it, too. Even discounting outright fraud or manipulation of data, the widespread use of methodologies known to be invalid plagues many fields and is leading to an increasing inability to reproduce recent findings (the so-called crisis of reproducibility) that puts the very basis of our reliance on scientific research results at risk. Of course, one could claim that science is by nature self-correcting, but the problem appears to be getting worse before it gets better.

Is it time for more scientists to speak out openly about raising the level of transparency and honesty in their field?

Comments

Re:Incentives

[NostalgiaForInfinity]

The patent system rewards drug makers, hospitals push their drugs, and the American consumer gets the hard deep fucking they asked for.

The only problem with any of this is that the costs are socialized. If you personally faced the choice of paying $5000 for the latest patented vanity drug vs. $50 for the tried-and-true generic, you'd opt for the generic. Since "insurance" covers it, most people just go for the most expensive treatment. Even if hospitals and doctors aren't financially incentivized, they give you the more expensive drug because it doesn't cost them anything either, they assume that if it's new it must be better, and it makes their patients happy.