The 21st century has opened in a very different way than science fiction writers of the 1960s might have imaged. Instead of a world that went all in on science as progress — “better living through chemistry” and all — we seem to be entering a century where even the facts, let alone the science, are in question. How did we get here? And what can we do?

Facts and Belief

Distrust in science and facts has always been around. Whether it was the debate about evolution or the age of the Earth, when science and belief are in conflict, people tend to lean into discrediting each endeavor. Belief doesn’t need to be religious, either. It could be belief in certain ideas or morals or ways of life. All of these could face challenges in the face of rigorous scientific research and facts. When this happens, it is easy to fall prey to automatic naysaying to keep the world in line with your view.

Schisms like these are only a piece of our (somewhat overblown) “post-fact” world. For better or worse, we have exacerbated this distrust by both encouraging skepticism and discouraging education in science. This leads people to, at the same time, doubt scientific fact but also attempt to fill in that doubt with untrustworthy, inaccurate and dishonest information.

Skeptics and Experts

Skepticism is a healthy thing when done correctly. We should not blithely accept what people tell us like radium is a cure-all, smoking isn’t bad for you and AI will solve the world’s problems. However, very few of us are equipped to evaluate everything that is thrown at us through the media, our neighbors, our family or our politicians. We need to be able to trust that there are people who can see through misinformation or wrong facts.

That is where expertise comes in. As even prominent politicians in the US have said this presidential cycle, people don’t want to trust in expertise anymore. The problem lies in the that that experts might not tell you what you want to hear. However, that is exactly what their role needs to be — using facts to verify and advise. Without experts, we all tend towards an overconfidence of our own knowledge and experience … “common sense” so to speak.

“Cheap Knowledge”

But that “common sense” can easily be manipulated by people whose intent is to deceive. By filling your social media feeds, YouTube videos or tv shows with misinformation, they can make you think you are an expert. Like a fast food meal makes you feel full but you know isn’t good for you, this kind of “cheap” knowledge is easy to find and hard to lose.

Many times, the intention of the peddlers of distrust and misinformation do not reveal their goals. Sometimes, it might just be as simple as views and dollars. We have created an economy that incentivizes interaction without incentivizing the quality of those interactions. Even worse, bad actors who want to manipulate can take advantage of this new economy to create swaths of people who don’t even realize that they have been recruited into causes and movements from all over the world.

Where does this leave us? We are seeing the results of a society that no longer has a shared set of facts. On top of that, we have leaders that support the very notion that facts are not “facts”. Like removing the rudder from a boat, we are left to drift where the current wants to take us … but we have created a society that can’t fix the rudder.

Avoiding a New Dark Age

It isn’t all hopeless. There are ways to reverse are slide into a new “Dim Age”. First, we need to rebuild trust in science and facts by (1) creating a strong science education program from the ground up that teaches both process and values; (2) communicating science in an empathetic and nurturing way and (3) bridging the gaps between all sides through this communication.

We can’t merely hope to “teach” or “lecture” our way out of this. Too many times, science leaders and communicators just throw admonitions at people who they perceive as less knowledgeable. This will never change people’s views on experts, let alone science. This might mean really getting into the community to talk to people, get to know them and let them get to know you as a scientist or just science aficionado.

The trust that has been lost or destroyed, either intentionally by bad actors or intentionally by poor communication, needs to be rebuilt. Without trust, you can’t have science or facts or experts to turn to when the world serves up big problems like climate change, pandemics and more. But trust is hard, especially when so many people in today’s society don’t want us to trust each other. However, science tells us that we all live on a shared planet whether we like it or not. Realizing that might be our own way out.