From the archives: From Algeria to Venezuela – and 38 other countries – four billion people – half the world’s population – are voting in general elections this year, making 2024 democracy’s biggest ever year. Dis and mis-information will no doubt be rife, so how do you sort the truth from the fiction? In the NZ Listener of October 9, 2021, physicist Jim Al-Khalili provided rational advice for everyday living – much of which can be applied to making sense of the world and its politics.
The Iraqi-British physicist Jim Al-Khalili is professor of public engagement in science at the University of Surrey and he wants us all to be more rational and adopt a scientific approach. In his book, The Joy of Science and, in an online lecture for New Scientist, he outlined his eight lessons from science we can use in everyday life.
Lesson 1: Something is either true or it isn’t. Al-Khalili is hostile to fancy philosophical arguments that reality is subjective or constructed. He believes there’s a real universe out there and we can learn fundamental truths about it. If he drops a ball from the roof of his house, it will take one second to fall 5m to the ground. This isn’t culturally determined. The rate isn’t different for people with different belief systems because it’s determined by the laws of physics. “There are undeniable facts about the world that exist whether or not you believe them.”
Lesson 2: It’s more complicated than that. Most people have heard of Occam’s razor: that the simplest explanation is usually the best. But both life and science are messy and the simplest explanation to fit the facts can still be very complex. Al-Khalili says, “We’re seeing a trend towards simplifying arguments, which ignores all complexity or subtlety.” Something is not true just because it seems obvious.
Lesson 3: Mysteries should be embraced. But we should also try to solve them. “It’s wrong to think that scientists are cold, hard rationalists who reject all wonder and spirituality and mystery just to replace it all with logic and reason and facts.”
He quotes the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman: “Poets say science takes away from the beauty of the stars – mere globs of gas atoms. I, too, can see the stars on a desert night, and feel them. But do I see less or more? What is the pattern, or the meaning, or the why? It does not do harm to the mystery to know a little about it.”
Lesson 4: Just because you don’t understand something doesn’t mean you can’t if you try. Al-Khalili admits that we’re not all going to be able to solve complex mathematical equations. We’re also not all about to become plumbers or concert pianists. But when we’re trying to understand something, we shouldn’t just say, “That’s too hard”, and just switch off. You’ll be surprised by how much more you can grasp if you put in the effort. Our attention spans are getting shorter because we’re constantly being bombarded by new information. So we have to learn to discriminate between what we’re being distracted by and what we should really be paying attention to.
Lesson 5: Don’t value opinion over evidence. How do we decide who or what to trust? How do we untangle evidence-based facts from uninformed opinion?
One of the benefits of science is that scientists are trained to change their minds when they encounter new evidence. That’s how they learn new things. So don’t ask yourself why others hold the views they hold. Ask yourself why you hold the views you hold. How confident are you that you’re right? Could you be wrong?
Lesson 6: Recognise your own biases before judging the views of others. One of the forms of bias Al-Khalili is most worried about is “illusory superiority”. This is when we have an overinflated sense of our own competence while failing to recognise our weaknesses.
It’s also known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, after the social scientists who defined it. Says US psychologist David Dunning: “If you’re incompetent, you can’t know you’re incompetent.” And we see this play out on social media.
Experts are often less likely to comment on an issue because they’re aware of the complexities, while people who don’t know about a subject have an overinflated sense of their own sagacity, and are therefore more strident and, frequently, more convincing.
Lesson 7: Don’t be afraid to change your mind. For Al-Khalili, this is the most important lesson of all. A scientist doesn’t need courage to say, “I used to believe something, but I’ve just seen an experimental result that proves my theory was wrong.”
He quotes Voltaire: “Doubt is not a pleasant condition, but certainty is absurd.” If you’re wrong, be brave and admit it, and value others who do the same.
Lesson 8: Stand up for reality. We’re not free to create our own version of reality. Al-Khalili is worried about disinformation and fake news but is ultimately an optimist about the world and the human condition, and his final case for science is more spiritual than rational. “It’s empowering,” he concludes, “to believe we can understand the world. And that act of understanding is a celebration of the wonders around us.”
This is an edited version of a story that was first published in the NZ Listener in the October 9-15 edition, as part of a featured ‘Logic: Why it matters & how to be better at it’.
