Scientists Themselves Play Large Role In Bad Reporting

There are a number of reasons scientists spin their work.

1. Science is quite boring. By nature it's supposed to be, objective, logical, and devoid of feelings. But Scientists themselves are not typically boring people, they're humans, and humans are emotional beings.

2. Scientists aren't communications experts and suck at making dry discipline accessible to the public. Never was this more obvious than when I was in college. How many brilliant researchers really sucked at teaching? Pretty much most of them.

3. Scientists want to think their work matters, and therefore are inclined to extrapolate applications of their science to the public. When those applications get reported as a sure thing, then an exaggeration is bound to happen.

4. And of course, Science that can be show to be of great public benefit gets funding. Cha-ching!

Source: http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdotScience/~3/bHHzBt1rSJQ/scientists-themselves-play-large-role-in-bad-reporting

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