The Role of Pseudoscience in Popular Media

pseudoscience

from the roots of the word is simply

false science

but more specifically pseudoscience can

be defined as

theories ideas or explanations for

something

that are represented as scientific but

that are not derived from science or the

scientific method

while this definition can commonly be

applied to bonkers conspiracy theories

like

flat earth or anti-vaccine movements

pseudoscience

pops up more often in our general

culture than you might think

in popular forms of entertainment like

movies television shows and books

pseudoscience appears constantly to

illustrate this disconnect between

science and pseudoscience and media

first i will walk you through some

popular examples

next i will discuss what effects these

examples might have on the real world

then i will examine why these examples

happen before finally determining

what should be done about them so what

are some examples of pseudoscience and

media

there are countless examples of popular

culture getting science wrong

but there are a few specific examples

that i would like to highlight today

the first examples start small jurassic

park

released in 1993 to critical and public

acclaim

but it contained many minute

inaccuracies first among them comes from

the title

jurassic park in sharp contrast to the

dinosaurs that actually appeared in the

film

like the tyrannosaurus rex mostly being

from the cretaceous period

rather than the jurassic period like the

title implies

the presentation of dinosaurs in the

film is also inaccurate as

gray scaly monsters with even more

recent jurassic world films maintaining

this design

despite newer research demonstrating

that many if not most dinosaurs had

colorful feathers

the way the dinosaurs were even created

in the film is at odds with our current

knowledge of how to clone animals

the park’s scientists are somehow able

to find dinosaur blood in a fossilized

mosquito

to extract dna from combining it with

distantly related frog dna

to create just one cloned dinosaur

that’s implausible to say the least

let alone the six different species that

appear in the first film

the second example is one of the more

easily recognizable instances of

pseudoscience

simply due to how unrealistic it sounds

even to the average viewer

in 2018’s ant-man and the wasp as well

as the 2019 follow-up avengers end game

both successful and popular films a plot

device

known as the quantum realm was used to

explain travel between time and space

in these movies it wouldn’t be out of

the ordinary to hear how

quantum entanglement can be harnessed to

create quantum tunnels

allowing entry to the quantum realm all

of course measured using a quantum

spectrometer

all of this is largely fictional quantum

mechanics is just the study of how

particles behave

and it can’t be used to justify

superhero time travel

the movie even jokes about it with the

titular ant-man asking if the scientists

in the movie just put the word quantum

in front of everything

the last example concerns the genre of

television crime procedurals

for those that don’t watch them in these

shows every week

a crime is committed and a team of law

enforcement has to find the evidence to

determine who did it

frequently the crucial piece of evidence

they need to find to convict someone

comes from forensic science the

techniques used to produce

physical evidence relating to a crime

the part these shows get wrong though

is that they present these forms of

forensic evidence as

infallible easy to obtain or even

necessary for a conviction

when all of that is far from true in the

real world

it’s not easy to find accurate dna clear

fingerprints or even gunshot residue

for a crime that happened months weeks

or days prior

this extreme faith in forensic science

is a clear example

of pseudoscience and media possibly

having real world consequences

so that might leave you wondering what

does this mean for the real world

in essence we need to find out if these

examples of pseudoscience

have real world consequences i think

that even the more innocuous examples of

pseudoscience can reveal greater issues

in the world

people can absorb misinformation about

the media they consume

in fact in a 2015 poll conducted by

yougov

in which 75 of respondents said that

they had seen a jurassic park

or jurassic world movie 28

of people said that they thought that

scientists could currently either

probably or definitely create

dinosaur clones from dna found in

dinosaur fossils

even more concerning in that same poll

41 percent of people

said that they thought that dinosaurs

and humans either probably or definitely

once lived on the planet at the same

time as one another

if popular media continues to show such

scientific falsehoods

even if they are clearly labeled as

fiction

there’s always going to be some amount

of people who take it at face value and

believe such false ideas

on the other side of the spectrum you

can have movies like the avengers

taking real scientific concepts and

presenting them in a fictional way

big movie franchises like marvel do

employ scientific advisors like quantum

physicists spyrodon micolakis

that incorporate real scientific

concepts into their movies

but for whatever reason they often take

liberties with the facts

dr michalakis even said that ant-man’s

particular take on quantum entanglement

is a stretch scientifically there’s a

clear problem with the possibility that

people

look at fictional depictions of ideas

like the quantum realm

and extrapolate that to think that all

quantum mechanics

physics or even science in general is

wrong

with 13 percent of americans according

to p research

having a lack of confidence in

scientists to act in the public interest

movie makers need to be cognizant of the

role that they might play in that

but the biggest danger in my opinion

brings us back

to media presenting itself as realistic

the csi effect as coined by researchers

schweiter and sax

describes the phenomenon in which

depictions of forensic science

in crime procedurals alters the

expectations of jurors in court

now research under the effect has proved

inconclusive in determining whether it

has a

pro-defense bias in which jurors are

less likely to

convict if there’s not enough forensic

evidence a pro-prosecution bias in which

jurors are more likely to convict if

there is forensic evidence

both or no bias at all but what remains

true though

is that people in the criminal justice

system like lawyers

act as if the effect has both a

pro-defense and pro-prosecution bias

leading to a focus on unnecessary

forensic evidence

over other important forms of evidence

like witness testimony

according to researcher john aldridge we

want the legal system to be unbiased and

false science and crime procedurals has

the potential

to affect everyone that might leave you

wondering

why does this happen if there are such

drastic

real-world consequences why is

pseudoscience put into media in the

first place

it is clear that most big media studios

have the resources to stay as

scientifically accurate as possible

jurassic park had a massive budget for

the time of 63 million dollars

with jurassic world raising that to 150

million dollars

avengers end game even at a humongous

budget of 356 million dollars

both jurassic park and avengers end game

have at one point or another

been the highest grossing film in terms

of box office success

even crime procedurals are extremely

popular

law and order special victims unit is

one of the longest running live-action

dramas on tv today

these franchises get millions of viewers

and they make a large amount of money

so it’s not a question of if popular

media can be scientifically accurate

but whether or not it even needs to be

as i mentioned before these studios do

employ scientific advisors

that incorporate scientific concepts

into their films

jurassic park worked with paleontologist

jack horner

marvel worked with quantum physicists

spirodonicalakis

even law and order had people like brian

fagan that worked to fact check the

writers with legal and scientific

researchers

but the important thing to remember

though is that these researchers

aren’t against the depictions of science

and media they helped create them

the reason they might gloss over some

incorrect facts is simply because

the story trumps the realism

pseudoscience

serves the plot if you can’t do

superhero time travel in the avengers in

a realistic way

then you have to make things up to do it

because superhero time travel is cool

dr michalakis may have said before that

ant-man’s particular take on quantum

entanglement is a stretch scientifically

but he goes on in that interview to say

that it’s narratively satisfying

so he approves of it it’s hard to

imagine the other examples being

scientifically accurate either

can you imagine how much less scary

jurassic park would have been

if it were instead cretaceous park and

the dinosaurs were technicolored

feathery birds

no cool dinosaurs should be scary

dr horner even agrees that the jurassic

park designs don’t need to be changed to

be feathered

even crime procedurals might need to

make things up to fit the dramatic story

beats

that have proven to be so successful in

the television world

it wouldn’t be as exciting if there

weren’t a crucial piece of forensic

evidence

they need to find to piece together the

story of the crime

there are negatives to pseudoscience and

media to be sure

but there are also clear positives

so the next logical step then is to

figure out a solution

what do we need to do about this issue

if anything

you may have thought over the course of

this talk that this

doesn’t really matter that people should

just suspend their disbelief when

consuming media

but my issue with that line of thinking

is that suspension of disbelief doesn’t

always apply

especially when disbelief doesn’t occur

in the first place

you can’t look at something and say

that’s inaccurate

if you don’t know that it is inaccurate

so solution to the issue of

pseudoscience and media

is education teaching people to

recognize the inaccuracies

so that they can suspend their disbelief

rather than absorb misinformation

popular media can be used as a tool in

the classroom to demonstrate what those

movies got right and what they got wrong

if we can teach people that dinosaurs

don’t look like they do in jurassic park

or that dinosaurs didn’t live at the

same time as each other or humans

then maybe people won’t have those

misconceptions when they watch jurassic

park

if we can teach people about all the

interesting ideas surrounding

physics and quantum mechanics then maybe

people won’t dismiss those real sciences

as

too hard or crazy if we can teach people

about the biases they might have as

potential jurors

about forensic science then maybe we

might have more fair trials

now don’t get me wrong we should

absolutely push for accuracy in the

media we consume

but there comes a point where critiquing

superhero time travel

just becomes nitpicking and we should be

able to knowledgeably suspend our

disbelief

to enjoy the media for what it is who

knows if

seeing something unrealistic might

inspire someone in the future to make

something interesting a reality

thank you

you