The World Health Organization (WHO) threw the cat among the pigeons last week with a new report linking eating red and processed meat to cancer.
It didn’t claim our way of life is killing us, but it would seem this way from the reactions. Agriculture Minister Barnaby Joyce, for instance, said the WHO would have humans living in caves were we to follow all its recommendations.
This response is all too familiar and highlights the public’s fundamental misunderstanding of how science works. Two issues stand in the way of, and often override, sensible interpretations of research findings – science fatigue and confirmation bias.
Science Fatigue
The media constantly bombards us with the latest research on a plethora of topics without much nuance on its quality or relevance.
