Scientific Illiteracy/Misinformation, Or The Depletion

Scientific illiteracy/misinformation, or the depletion of accurate scientific information from society, is common across the United States due to increased mediums of communication. In the past scientific misinformation most commonly materialized itself in propaganda and advertising worldwide. Issues such as the eugenics programs during World War II and efforts for the birth control pill in the United States all involved government and privately-sponsored media which skewed the main tenets and evidence of these programs, leading to mass persuasion and scientific misinformation. Nazi Germany, perhaps the most well-known totalitarian power, used their media presence to convince its citizens that the deportation and systematic killing of†¦show more content†¦Therefore citizens of France, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and other European countries were subject to mass misinformation causing them to feel as if they were biologically superior to those who practiced a different religion. More specifically, youth were targeted with children’s books that taught them â€Å"to turn on their Jewish counterparts,† and regard them as untrustworthy and sacrilegious (Monhollen 78). Approximately 6 million Jews were murdered in concentration camps such as Dachau, Auschwitz-Birkenau, and Chelmno, while the Germans were being convinced that they were indeed better in physical appearance, mindset, and all other capabilities than the Jewish people their government was slaughtering. Monhollen asserts that the German people were so influenced by the propa ganda that surrounded them that they â€Å"did nothing to prevent [the Holocaust],† despite evidence of the mass killings circulating in underground, privately-sponsored media (Monhollen 81-82). The propaganda of the Nazi regime spread mass misinformation by repeatedly instilling in the minds of the German citizens the idea that the Aryan race was biologically superior to the Jewish race in physical characteristics and capability. Nearly twenty years after World War II, the United States faced its own issue with private and state-sponsored media and the invention and integration of a new pill that would change the way people looked at women: birth control. The feministShow MoreRelatedStephen P. Robbins Timothy A. Judge (2011) Organizational Behaviour 15th Edition New Jersey: Prentice Hall393164 Words   |  1573 Pagesattempting to attribute causes and effects, and basing our conclusions on scientific evidence—that is, on data gathered under controlled conditions and measured and interpreted in a reasonably rigorous manner. (See Appendix A for a basic review of research methods used in studies of organizational behavior.) Evidence-based management (EBM) complements systematic study by basing managerial decisions on the best available scientific evidence. For example, we want doctors to make decisions about patient