Fake News: The State of Science in A Post-Truth World

If there was one phrase that you could argue defines modern times, it would have to be fake-news. The people over at Collins dictionary would agree with you, having named it their 2017 ‘word of the year’, and for good reason. Some argue that fake-news played a large role in deciding the US Presidential election, with social media and the internet providing a platform for an unprecedented spread of false information. In the run up to the vote, fake news stories were shared more widely than real stories from the mainstream media. Reportedly, many people believed these stories, which themselves leaned mostly in favour of Trump, leading to speculation that fake-news had a hand in electing him.

In science, the story is very much the same: the internet has provided a platform for fake science news. Whilst pseudoscience is nothing new (think Victorian era businessmen peddling potions to cure all ailments), social media websites and online blogs provide a platform for a whole host of modern pseudoscience, ranging from phony cure-all holistic medicines, to wacky conspiracy theories. One conspiracy theory that has gained traction since the 90s is the presence of ‘chemtrails’ - chemicals deposited into the atmosphere by government aeroplanes for geoengineering purposes. The theory claims the deposits are polluting our environment and damaging our health. Though this theory has been thoroughly debunked by the scientific community (the trails left by planes are simply exhaust condensing in the atmosphere), you can still find endless internet forums and videos from popular YouTube commentators that claim to provide ‘proof’ of the damage of chemtrails. There is even a (now retracted) scientific paper published on the matter.

This movement of pseudoscience to the mainstream hints at the power of the internet to popularise fringe ideas, however incorrect. This is no more evident than in the recent resurgence of the ‘flat-earth’ theory, which states exactly what you think it does. According to the Flat Earth Society’ (yes, there’s an actual society), the Earth is a disc with a large ice wall at the rim, and the sun, stars, and moon all rotate above a central point over the north pole. Since 2015, the theory has gained ground in popular culture, with Google searches for “flat earth” tripling in that time. This has been helped in part by celebrity figures getting behind the movement, showing their support publicly on social media. A rapper, known as B.o.B, even went so far as to set up a GoFundMe page to raise funds to send satellites into space, to answer the question once and for all. It hasn’t taken off.

At this point, you might be forgiven for thinking that pseudoscience doesn’t matter, that it’s just a bunch of conspiracy theorists, who are of no harm to anyone. However, pushing fake science can lead to dangerous consequences. In 1998, a study was published in the Lancet by Dr Andrew Wakefield and 12 others. It claimed that there was a link between the measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine and the development of autism. The link between autism and vaccines has since been comprehensively disproven, and it was discovered Wakefield was being funded by a lawyer associated with an anti-vaccine group. Furthermore, the paper was a result of poor, unethical, and fraudulent practices. However, the damage has been done. The paper was not fully retracted from the journal until 12 years after publication, and the consequent rise of the anti-vaccination movement citing this work has led to measles outbreaks in the UK, the US, and Canada due to a lack of vaccinations.

It is worrying that dangerous ideas like these persist, despite the overwhelming contrary evidence. In this post truth world, there appears to be worrying trend of anti-intellectualism. As a result, significant scientific consensus is being disputed, such as those who disagree with 97% of scientists that climate change is likely human-caused. Unfortunately, climate change denialism has made its way into government, with one US senator famously bringing a snowball into the senate as ‘proof’ against global warming.

The troubling fact of scientific-denialism is how it warps the debate to give both arguments equal weighting, despite evidence in clear favour of one or the other. This results in a platform for fringe ideas to become mainstream, much like the conspiracy theories mentioned earlier. Perhaps the resurgence in conspiracy theories is just an indicator of a wider distrust of intellectualism, and can tell us a lot about the state of science in this post-truth world.

Originally published in Edinburgh University Science Magazine, Issue 22: Pop:Sci