Clearer Thinking with Spencer Greenberg

How can we make science more trustworthy? (with Stuart Ritchie)

Jan 19, 2023

Stuart Ritchie, a Lecturer at King's College London specializing in human cognitive abilities, dives into pressing issues in science's credibility. He discusses the drastic decline of trust in scientific findings during COVID-19, attributing it to political factors and flawed studies. Ritchie explores the contentious debates over ivermectin and the complexities of vitamin D research, highlighting the challenges of reaching scientific consensus. He also unpacks the nuances of IQ testing, advocating for a broader understanding of intelligence that considers various cognitive factors.

01:26:37

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Episode guests

Stuart Ritchie

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Episode notes

Intro

2min

Trust in Science Amidst COVID-19

20min

Ivermectin: The Controversial COVID Debate

5min

The Illusions of Scientific Effect Sizes and Decision-Making Tools

3min

Ivermectin: Misinformation and Mixed Evidence

11min

IQ Research Unpacked

16min

Exploring IQ: Insights and Limitations

14min

Exploring the Challenges of Isolating Cognitive Functions in Intelligence Testing

3min

Rethinking Intelligence: Beyond IQ

14min

Read the full transcript here.

How can we make science more trustworthy? When scientists break into factions around a particular topic, whom should we trust, and why? Why did trust in science as an institution plummet drastically during COVID? What is the state of the evidence for the effectiveness of hydroxychloroquine, ivermectin, or vitamin D against COVID? Why is controlling for variables so difficult? What evidence is there for how well IQ represents intelligence and predicts useful things about people's lives? There's the famous quip that "IQ tests only measure how well people do on IQ tests", but we also all seem to know that some people are smarter than others; so can't that disparity be captured in a single number, or even in a small set of numbers?

Stuart Ritchie is a Lecturer at the Social, Genetic, and Developmental Psychiatry Centre, King's College London. He received his PhD in psychology from The University of Edinburgh in 2014. Since then, he's been researching human cognitive abilities like how our mental abilities age and how education can improve intelligence. His other interests are in the subject of Science Fictions: the problems with the scientific system and how we might fix them to improve the quality of research. Learn more about him at sciencefictions.org or follow him on Twitter at @StuartJRitchie.

Staff

Spencer Greenberg — Host / Director
Josh Castle — Producer
Ryan Kessler — Audio Engineer
Uri Bram — Factotum
Janaisa Baril — Transcriptionist
Miles Kestran — Marketing

Music

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