Posts Tagged ‘reason’

Appealing Narratives Untethered from the Truth

March 31, 2024 — Narratives are powerful because humanity has a natural inclination to tell stories. We seek to understand our world through the stories we tell. But this sets up a problem for nutrition and obesity science. Appealing narratives untethered from the truth can take decades to recognize as misleading. All too often, this happens only after policymakers […]

The Rise of Contempt Above Curiosity and Reason

January 28, 2024 — In public life and unfortunately, in science and health policy, we find too often that contempt takes over from curiosity and reason. It is obvious in politics and likely to get painful this year. But it is not confined to the political realm. In nutrition and obesity research, we find that people are often ready […]

Unreasonable Hope for the Coming Year

December 26, 2021 — Hope is, by its very nature, unreasonable. It is not based on empiric evidence. Shane Lopez, editor of the Oxford Handbook of Hope, defined it as: “The belief that the future will be better than the present, along with the belief that you have the power to make it so.” Today, we feel the need […]