News of the Global Young Academy

Subtitles: Script 4 Ethics Tutorial – Trust in Science around the World 

No matter where you are watching this right now… here or here,  or maybe even here.  Nowadays  science is everywhere. But what do people all over the world think about science and scientists?  Well, that question was investigated in a survey from the Wellcome Trust in 2018. They asked over 140.000 People in 140 countries. And they got some encouraging results: For example: three quarter of the world population have confidence in their own health care system.  But, wait a minute, does that mean, one quarter does not trust their doctors and nurses?  

Let’s have a closer look. Germany is a country whose healthcare system did relatively well during the Covid 19 pandemic. Lisa, a philosopher and GYA member, lives there:  “In Germany trust in science seems to be high according to surveys, but people get suspicious whenever there are controversial political topics, and they ask if some of the studies have been paid for by private interests and that’s of course a very good reason to ask critical questions.” 

In Germany especially the pharmaceutical companies have to cope with a lot of distrust. That’s probably one reason why some parents don’t want their children to be vaccinated against measles. The same problem occurs in other countries as well, France, Ukraine and the Philippines for example.  But in most countries of Latin America, the Anti-Vaccination Movement isn’t such an issue. At least, that’s what Clarissa – another GYA member – has experienced:  “In Latin America we don’t have problems of anti vaccers -aof people thinking that vaccines are not good.  On the contrary each time there is a new case of measles for example… A kid and a family from Europe for example in Costa Rica came to the airport in Costa Rica and it was a whole fuss around the country, because they were angry, they think, they are vaccinating their children, why do they have to have that risk in their country?” Costa Rica hasn’t had any case of measles for years until in 2019 a French Family brought the disease into the country.  Understandably, Costa Ricans were upset that they had to deal with measles again. So, almost no problem with the Anti-Vaccination Movement in Costa Rica and other Latin American countries – at least so far.  But that doesn’t mean all is well between science and society in this part of the world. Let’s have a look at Peru, Clarissa’s home country. “Sometimes in Peru we have Earthquakes and when that happens there are many physicists that go to the TV channel and they talk about what has happened and what are the implications of this  but we also have some TV Programs that bring Shamans or people that are working with the Tarot and things like this.  They are also invited to the TV and this evokes in the population to really be thinking that the shaman is gonna tell them when the next earthquake is gonna be.” People listening to religious leaders rather than to scientists – that’s a phenomenon that’s happening in many countries.  

Let’s go to Nigeria, where Adewale, a GYA chemist, lives:  “It has always been religious belief, you know, a lot of people they believe in God and they believe that most of the things you see happening around you are just miracles.”  What is it about Science and Religion? The Wellcome Global Monitor has some interesting results on this topic: among people with a religious affiliation 55% would side with their religious teachings in a disagreement between science and their religion. And it’s not just Africa where religious beliefs can cause problems for scientists: Among people who say they have a religion the highest percentages of people who say that science has disagreed with their religious teachings are in the United States and Southern Europe. But there are also many people who think that science and religion are really about different things – so maybe there is no need for disagreement?   

Aside from that, there are also some problems that all scientists all over the world are facing. At least everywhere where people own mobile phones with access to social media and the internet. “Sometimes it happens, that the Information, that is loaded by someone else, who is not expert in that area could be false. This is because on the internet any common person can upload anything and it is circulated within one click of a button. That is why I feel the trust in science is decreasing.” Shalini, a GYA member from India, works in food engineering. Not long ago, a question trended on Indian social media:  Does ordinary wheat flour contain plastic? Videos showing kitchen experiments undertaken by ordinary Indians would have you think so.  The scientific explanation was that a high amount of gluten, a naturally occurring protein in wheat, was responsible for the elasticity of wheat flour.  

 But despite this reasonable explanation people didn’t stop worrying about their flour. Flour companies had to implement all kinds of safety protocols and start media campaigns.  The topic might be different from country to country, but the effects of false information on the internet are always harmful one way or another.  

Fake news on social media, perceived conflicts between religion and science, anti-vaccination movements and people not knowing what science is about are just a few of the challenges scientists all over the world are facing.  There are many more: For example, in some countries scientists aren’t allowed to work freely, in others, women are excluded from almost all scientific endeavors. And nearly everywhere young scientists have to work under an extreme amount of pressure. 

So, what can we do about all this? How can we solve all these problems? First of all, there won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution, because the problems and circumstances differ from country to country.  And second: You are not alone! Connect with your colleagues around the world. Find out what problems they have and be inspired by how they approach them.  

In Nigeria at least Adewale is hopeful that trust in science will increase, because more and more people are getting access to a better education. “People get to now know, what science is all about as a result of this being taught at school , people know their basic science. And they can use this to explain happenings or things happening in their society.” And in many western countries, science fairs are a great success. They sometimes attract as many visitors as huge concerts by pop stars!  And often the most popular presenters are young scientists – like GYA member Sophie, from France: “I like very much to interact with the public at small science fairs, where we show small chemical demonstration for example because I can see the passion and the curiosity in the eyes of the public.  This is also why I feel that the public has an inherent trust somehow in younger scientists. I have the feeling, they don’t see us as establishment and that there is this easy contact that we can make together to discuss about the small experiment but also to discuss about questions such as climate change.” 

So young scientists from all over the world, connect with your society – it’s you they gonna trust.   

Subtitles: Script 6 Ethics Tutorial – Conflict of Interest 

Let’s start with some good news today: Scientists are influential people.  Believe it or not, but there is a lot of evidence for this claim. For example, more and more scientists are advising politicians, stakeholders from the industry and other powerful people.  But the same people often fear what science might have to say about a given issue. That’s why they might try to manipulate scientists. They wouldn’t do that if what scientists have to say didn’t have any impact. Here’s an example –  and this story has been investigated in a lot of detail. It was thanks to some influential scientists that the tobacco industry was able to cloud everybody’s judgement on the fact that smoking can cause lung cancer. Although one has to admit that those scientists were also influential because the tobacco industry made them influential. 

When in the early 1950s more and more scientific evidence was published that the increasing number of lung cancer cases was linked to smoking, tobacco industry executives panicked. But with the help of public relation specialists, they soon found a solution for their problem: They would support the views of a minority of scientists, who were skeptical of the causal relationship between smoking and cancer. By doing so they created a huge scientific controversy that wouldn’t otherwise have existed. Whenever the question of the health risks of smoking came up, they would point to this controversy and state that there are so many uncertainties, and the science isn’t clear yet. 

With this strategy the Tobacco industry bought itself valuable time. New generations of smokers became addicted and regulatory interventions were delayed for decades. In the meantime, the tobacco industry earned billions, while many smokers died prematurely. And as if this wouldn’t be tragic enough, what’s even worse is that this strategy was picked up by others. Oil companies pay for assessments from scientists stating that fracking isn’t harmful for the environment.  

Conservative foundations are fund scientists who claim that global warming is not caused by humans. And certain think tanks are support philosophers and sociologists whose work is in line with their political agenda.  

And what about the scientists? What is their part in this game of money, power and influence?  Well, the truth is that not all of these scientists act in bad faith – some genuinely believe in what they are doing. And yet, the fact that they – rather than colleagues with different lines of research – get money distorts the playing field.  The results of studies sponsored by interest groups have been shown to be systematically skewed in their favor, a phenomenon that is called “the funding effect”. And that – of course – undermines societies’ trust in science.  

So, how can scientists fix this? It might help to think about what “conflict of interest” means. Basically, it’s always about loyalty.  And what does loyalty mean in the world of science? To whom or what is a scientist loyal?  

Well, a scientist needs to be loyal to two things: to the search for truth, and to basic ethical principles. Anything that might affect a scientist’s loyalty to the search for truth and to basic ethical principles can cause a conflict of interest.  If a scientist gets money from a corporation for an assessment and the results do not align with the corporation’s agenda, the scientist’s loyalty to the search for truth is in conflict with his loyalty to the company. But a conflict of interest is not always so easy to identify. It might just be a little bit of money given to a scientist with no visible strings attached. A scientist could, for example, be invited to a conference and a company pays for all the travel expenses, including a stay in a fancy hotel.  But even something like this can affect a person’s integrity. After all, it’s natural to react with gratitude, and to feel obliged when receiving a gift. Even if the money from the company didn’t immediately affect the scientist’s judgments, accepting it can be risky.  

If push comes to shove and there is a public controversy, the fact that the scientist has taken money from certain players might be used against her. And if the public finds out about something like this, it can lose trust in science.   

So, as a scientist you should think twice before you accept contributions from any interest group. However, this is a very idealistic standard – in many countries there is not enough public funding of research projects available and scientists there might not have much of a choice. That can lead to really tough situations!  

In any case this is not an issue that scientists should grapple with on their own. We need to have this debate in our institutions, in scientific associations, and also in the broader public.  Where is the line between acceptable and unacceptable practices? And how can we protect science from being targeted by vested interests? Let’s start talking about it!