When Science is Wrong: Race, Homosexuality, and the Abuse of Public Trust in Science

Scientific discoveries have advanced society in incredible ways. Advancements in science have allowed people to live longer and do more than was ever possible before. Yet, while it is crucial to recognize the many truths we have gained from science, it is also important to recognize that there have been times of scientific failure. In fact, while science has improved society and saved lives countless times, people have also used science on multiple occasions to justify their prejudices and ignorance and to defend the oppression of and injustices towards groups of people.

In the 1700s and 1800s, European and American scientists became very interested in the science behind their perceived differences between groups, or races, of people. Many famous scientists, such as Carolus Linnaeus, Petrus Camper, Johann Friedrich Blumenbach, and Samuel George Morton, studied humanity through a racial lens and made conclusions about what they believed was the biological basis for racist beliefs about the superiority of white people. They supported their own prejudices, preconceptions, and ideas of white supremacy with scientific evidence, which was promoted by journalists, teachers, and preachers and was trusted by many at the time. “Race science” became a justification for the ancient social inequality that had caused certain groups of people to be viewed as inferior and lack opportunity and privilege for generations, creating a vicious cycle to then be used to keep those groups of people disadvantaged.

People who questioned the “race science” findings of the aforementioned prominent scientists were not taken seriously; yet, those very findings have since been proven to be clearly inaccurate by modern genetic research. Race is a social construct, not a genetic blueprint of the capabilities of different people based on surface characteristics. However, the effects of people’s beliefs in race as a scientific reality continue to be very real and extremely problematic. False science justified ignorance, and even after the science moved forward, that ignorance of many people, and their confidence in it, remained.

In addition, people have turned to science in deeming homosexuality a “psychiatric illness” and seeking "cures" for homosexuality. The role of faulty science in prevalent conclusions about both race and homosexuality illustrates how confirmation bias can play into science. Scientists have, at times, attempted to use science only to the extent that it would serve as justification for their own personal beliefs. It was easy for the idea of scientific backing for white supremacy to become widely accepted because so many people believed that science held concrete answers. In reality, the scientific research, even from trusted leaders in the field, was false; the idea of racial superiority that already existed confirmed incomplete scientific research, rather than complete scientific research confirming an unsupported preconception. Further, because homosexuality was viewed as socially unacceptable, scientists set out to justify that belief and seek ways to “cure” something that was not actually a disease. Their findings would not have been so widely accepted if they had completely undermined people’s deep-rooted ideas of morality and threatened societal norms.

Accepted beliefs transform over time as people gain new evidence, despite ancient traditions and ideas, but new attitudes that contradict long-standing beliefs have always been met with hostility. Nonetheless, doubt about old scientific conclusions should be utilized to spark new searches for evidence, and fear about new conclusions should continue to motivate the people striving to eliminate what they see as unreasonable fear to continue working to prove those conclusions (or potentially make room for more changes regarding the accepted scientific ideas).

Science has perspicuously furthered society, yet skepticism has consistently been proven to further science. It is important to remember that people really used to believe the world was flat.

Sources

https://royalsociety.org/topics-policy/diversity-in-science/black-history/types-of-mankind/

https://www.facinghistory.org/holocaust-and-human-behavior/chapter-2/science-race

https://www.nature.com/scitable/topicpage/human-testing-the-eugenics-movement-and-irbs-724

https://www.jwatch.org/jw200403260000007/2004/03/26/medical-treatment-homosexuality-historical-view