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‘Staggering’ number of people believe unproven claims about vaccines, raw milk and more (www.nature.com)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/science@lemmy.world
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The result “blows the lid off of this idea” that such beliefs are held by only a fringe population of individuals who are uninformed or ideologically driven, says David Bersoff, head of research at the Edelman Trust Institute. “This is not like a small problematic group.”

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[–] 0 points 6 months ago (3 children)

For each statement, between 25% and 32% of respondents said they believed it, and another sizeable percentage (17–39%) said they didn’t know whether it was true. In total, 70% of respondents believed at least one of the claims (see ‘Divided views’). The findings, which have not been peer reviewed and were published today by the Edelman Trust Institute in New York City, were described as ‘staggering’ in an accompanying article by the think tank’s chief executive, Richard Edelman.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (2 children)

    A lot of smart people, scientists even, would be inclined to say "I don't know if it's true" with the key word being "know".

    If they're not familiar with the literature and they're being exposed to a claim for the very first time, they'd potentially want to consult the research on the matter. (Not "do their own research", but to look into respectable research done by professionals)

    Like all that raw milk stuff? I've got no clue what that's about. And if the claims are like "Raw milk promotes the maintenance of healthy bones and teeth better than homogenized milk" or something, I dunno man. I've never heard anything one way or the other. "I don't know if it's true". I might even be leaning towards disbelieving it, but I don't know.

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  • [–] 1 point 6 months ago (1 child)

    Yeah, so that accounts for the grey being reasonable (although in some of these a arguably too large, if things are well established and people are unsure that's because of groups spreading uncertainty)

    The article is mostly focused on that red bar though

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