Royal Society cautions against censorship of scientific misinformation online
The issue that plagues us is a lack of trust in long-standing societal authorities.<p>We can&#x27;t follow the entire scientific proof chain for every piece of information we encounter, because we don&#x27;t have time.<p>So we rely on authority to some extent, whether that be peer review, government, independent bodies, etc.<p>We need to be able to trust that these bodies are telling us the truth and aren&#x27;t seeking to mislead us. Because when we start to doubt them, we then inevitably elect alternative bodies, simply due to limited thinking capacity&#x2F;time - as explained above it&#x27;s impossible to do otherwise, no-one derives from first principles every opinion they hold.<p>The best way, _overall_, to convince someone to do something, is by clearly explaining to them the positives and negatives and letting them come to their own conclusion.<p>It doesn&#x27;t always work, and there are specific situations (e.g. someone is holding a gun to your face) in which the cost&#x2F;benefit analysis is very different - in such a situation, the short term is all that exists, the long term effect of misplaced trust is irrelevant - you simply have to neutralize them.<p>But in general, I&#x27;m absolutely sure that education over coercion is the correct approach for society.<p>Because if you force them, sure, you&#x27;ve got a short term win, at the long term cost of trust. What is the long term cost of lost trust?