Scientific Sillyness

Sci-Am has a entry on GM foods which reminded me of the poll I had on science. Currently 11% of people say “The biggest problem with Genetically Modified food is the ‘Alien’ effect where evil genes leap out of your stomach explosively“. It’s a bad question. The question starts ‘The biggest problem with Genetically Modified food is…’, which makes the assumption there are problems with it and at least one of them is big. After all ‘the biggest problem’ is hardly a way of describing something trivial.

I’m returning to polls as I was surprised by the poor showing for Astrology in the same poll. Just 3% say ‘The discovery of Sedna will make horoscopes even more accurate’. I started a poll on What Does the Nation Think? That’s flatlined at just 14 votes, but still no positive sign for Astrology. I think the problem is that they were both Science polls and the people who are interested in Astrology are not likely to answer something that’s overtly scientific. What I’ve done is start a new vote on Mister Poll, Astrology and You which reads more positively to encourage pro-Astrology voters to take part. I’m interested in seeing why people take it seriously.

My guess is that it’s a narcissistic pleasure. It’s nice to think there’s a bit of the paper that’s about you, even if it’s badly written.