What Is the Scientific Consensus?

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CNN's John Sutter says there was a point at which Freeman could have said follow the science. But even then it would have been much more contested than he would have suggested, he says. Scientists who have their reputation staked on something will act so as to block senior scientists saying they're wrong, writes Sutter. "I think we should be especially conscious of in areas where the stakes are high"

When physician Walter Freeman died in 1972, he still believed that lobotomies were the best treatment for mental illness. A pioneer in the method, he was a deeply confident and charismatic man who eagerly spread the technique in America, long after the rise of alternative treatments that were less destructive. Listen as journalist Megan McArdle and EconTalk's Russ Roberts discuss what McArdle calls the "Oedipus Trap": mistakes that no one can live with, even if they were innocently made, and how admitting such mistakes to ourselves is nearly impossible. They also discuss the complexity of the credo, "follow the science."