Science, Faith, & Echo Chambers

You've probably heard of the Mozart Effect, the belief that playing Mozart to a fetus in utero will stimulate its intelligence.

Debunked.

What's interesting (and NPR gets this dead center) is how  a tiny particle of scientific knowledge becomes a popular dogma by colliding with what we want the data to mean.

Humanity probably needs to get its passionate desire for order under control.  It's a survival benefit, but all things (including survival) in moderation.

Science is a slow process, and that's a great feature: it'd rather get it right than get it fast (except in cases where the grant money will run out in twelve months).  But science has to work in a culture where inexpert reporters scan the pages of scientific journals looking for the story.  And scientists, being only human, are not immune to the draw to believe their hypotheses a little more strongly just because they've captured the public's opinion.

But public opinion is the stuff that gave us disco, Sarah Palin's candidacy, and the chia pet.

Sometimes science (not that it's a monolithic institution or anything) takes the fall for our own passionate ditortions.  Like religion, it sets up a truth just because it's true, and the public makes of it what it wants to make.  Unlike religion, it can debunk the distortion.

Well... sort of.

It's a good bet that mothers will play The Magic Flute to their own tummies for some time to come.  New Wives' Tales, better and more resonant in the echo chambers of a culture that doesn't stop chattering.

I think this is one reason why people interested in truth, whether it's science or religion, should be quieter.  Sometimes it's the sound of our own voices reverberating  that turn a truth into a lie.

You read it on a blog.

Irony duly noted.

Comments

[bowiemom]

I always took the 'music in utero' thing with a pinch of salt, but I have noticed that my son was more easily calmed by instrumental music, my middle daughter by speech, and my youngest by vocal music. I was in a bell choir while pg with the first, reading aloud a lot while pg with the second, and in a vocal choir while pg with the third.