Should we “trust the science”? What does that even mean?

Dr. Carlos Carvalho is a professor of statistics and the Executive Director of the Salem Center for Policy at the University of Texas at Austin. He’s an expert in analyzing data and understanding the tradeoffs of competing policies.

Dr. Carvalho doesn’t believe we should “trust the science” because science is not capable of leading people. The scientific method is a process of gathering information about the world, but in the end, decision making lies with each of us, according to our values.

That said, Dr. Carvalho knows how important data is to the decision making process. In fact, one of the biggest problems today is that, whether the issue is poverty, climate change, or infectious disease, most people don’t have an accurate dataset on which to base their decisions. In his classes, he teaches the current generation of college students how to avoid these pitfalls and develop reliable critical thinking skills to carry with them into their lives after college.

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Dr. Carvalho's Website: https://faculty.mccombs.utexas.edu/carlos.carvalho/index.html

Salem Center for Policy: https://salemcenter.org/

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Outline: 

[0:00] Intro 

[1:35] The value of data and statistics 

[5:47] College students are missing important facts 

[14:49] The cause of widespread ignorance 

[20:16] Should we “trust the science”?

[26:49] No solutions, only trade offs 

[29:18] Economics is the study of scarcity 

[32:39] If government interferes, it will be more expensive 

[38:46] Cognitive dissonance when confronting economic truths 

[44:54] There are no “right” answers to parenting 

[49:30] Collective human behavior and wellbeing is a mystery 

[53:54] Decision making is all about values 

[1:03:05] Interest, mortgages, and the value of time

[1:06:54] Social reinforcement of untrue orthodoxy 

[1:12:50] The “expert class” tends to seek power, not truth 

[1:17:47] What’s so special about America? 

[1:25:37] Outro

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Watch the video version on YouTube: https://youtu.be/9IR_jlFCcCw

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Dad Saves America is a channel dedicated to celebrating heroic fatherhood while teaching the next generation of fathers strategies they can utilize in parenting their children. We believe strong children come from a strong family. We’ve had many experts in the studio, including Jonathan Haidt, Mike Yates, Lenore Skenazy, Warren Farrell, Matt Ridley, Martin Gurri, and Michael Strong.