Why are People so Afraid of Science and Math?

Math source: freeimages.com/valium88

"LOL, I'm terrible at math. I could never understand what you do."

"That stuff is way beyond me. I'm no rocket scientist!"

"Calculus? I barely got through algebra!"

When I talk to people about my research, I'm used to getting these types of responses, typically accompanied by wide-eyed looks of astonishment, confusion, fascination, and/or fear. Oftentimes it feels like I'm some kind of crazy person trying desperately to communicate my enthusiasm to an audience that speaks a completely different language than I do. Most of the time, I try to take these situations in stride and hope that people walk away knowing just a little bit more about what I do. Nevertheless, I still finish these conversations feeling somewhat disappointed that scientific illiteracy and innumeracy are so prevalent, and at the same time, so accepted. You would never hear someone be proud to say "LOL, I suck at reading!"

I'm not here to shame people for lacking a full understanding of quantum mechanics or general relativity. What I am questioning, though, is why the general public seems to be so intimidated by anything related to science and math. On a personal level, it's frustrating to feel like I can't easily communicate what I do to non-scientists without leaving them scratching their heads in confusion. At a societal level, it's even more frustrating to see a substantial fraction of high-profile politicians debating the existence of anthropogenic climate change and a large movement of misguided parents refusing to vaccinate their children against preventable diseases.

I'm under the impression that people are scared away from these fields at an early age. Given how cumulative mathematical topics tend to be, it is easy for grade school students to fall behind at some point and to struggle to catch up during the remainder of their education.  Such circumstances would lead these students to assume that they lack the natural aptitude for anything quantitative.

"I'm just not a math person..."

While it may be hard for many who know me to believe, I've been a victim of this mentality on occasion, myself. Due to some learning differences related to processing speed (i.e. how quickly the brain processes information that it takes in), there were times when I struggled with my more mathematical coursework. During my undergraduate experience at Caltech, these difficulties were especially apparent considering that everything was taught at a highly accelerated pace. The curriculum often felt like a speeding school bus that would never stop - if you fell off, you were left behind on your own with no one to help.  With the right academic accommodations, however, I was able to graduate comfortably and to reach where I am today.

Given my own success in spite of learning difficulties, I believe that anyone is capable of understanding even the most advanced scientific and mathematical topics with the right education and support. With America's haphazard, cookie-cutter approach to teaching this material, it's no wonder that many of us fall off the school bus too early and develop the self-fulfilling prophecy that is "math anxiety" (which shouldn't even be a thing).

Even assuming that a large fraction of the general population were numerically challenged by nature, people tend to forget that scientific inquiry relies just as much on imaginative and creative thinking as it does on numeracy.  After all, computers are meant to assist scientists, not to replace them.  In the end, the same basic principles behind the scientific method (asking questions, making testable predictions and observations, etc.) can be applied to research in just about any field, from sociology and psychology to marketing and economics. Strip away all the fancy-talk, and science can be accessible to anyone.

"Sometimes it sounds like you're speaking a different language!"

To be fair, jargon can be difficult to understand, even among accomplished scientists in separate fields.  When a community of researchers starts relying too heavily on specialized terms that have different meanings or no meaning at all to others, a communication barrier can develop. It is for this reason why it is critical that scientists are able to discuss what they do with the general public in understandable language.  For some fields, this may be more difficult than others, but with a solid knowledge of the material and proper communication skills, any researcher should be able to make their work comprehensible to a broader audience.

Summary Points:

• When you tell a scientist "You're so smart, I could never understand what you do," that's almost more of an insult to their communication skills than a compliment to their intelligence. Instead of immediately tuning out, try to listen and ask questions. Maybe you'll find our work just as interesting as we do!

• No one is a "math person" by nature. Just about anyone can do algebra, or even calculus, with the right educational support.

• Math anxiety often develops because we ignore differences in learning styles. If my childhood education had measured quantitative intelligence using tests of speed and fluency alone, I would have probably fallen behind quite early. Additionally, little support is offered for students who fall off the proverbial school bus.

• A lot of research areas are jargon-heavy. It is essential that scientists (and mathematicians) are able to communicate what they do without the use of specialized terms specific to their field. Anyone's work should be accessible to the public.

For the sake of ending this blog post with humor, I thought I'd select a few random research papers from various fields and translate their titles into normal-people speak.

Astronomy

Actual title: Two New Candidate Planets in Eccentric Orbits

What it sounds like: Two Republican Planets in Peculiar Orbits Announce Candidacy for President

What it actually means: Two Potential Planets Discovered in Elliptical Orbits

Physics

Actual title: Observation of a New Boson at a Mass of 125 GeV with the CMS Experiment at the LHC

What it sounds like: Some Moron Seen Attending Christmas Mass of 125 AbC with the DEF Experiment at the GHI

What it actually means: New Particle with a Mass of 125 Giga-electronvolts Observed with the Fancy-Schmancy Equipment at the Large Hadron Collider

Atmospheric Science

Actual title: Development and Application of a Cubic Eddy-Viscosity Model of Turbulence

What it sounds like: Some Dude Named Eddy Made a Model Describing Crazy Viscous Cubes

What it actually means: How We Make and Use this Fancy-Schmancy Model to Describe Atmospheric Turbulence

Chemistry

Actual title: Electronic Properties of Disordered Two-Dimensional Carbon

What it sounds like: Electronic Estates of Schizophrenic Carbon Squares

What it actually means: How Impure Sheets of Carbon Interact with Electricity

Biology

Actual title: Phosphorylation of 3'-azido-3'deoxythymidine and Selective Interaction of the 5'-triphosphate with Human Immunodeficiency Virus Reverse Transcriptase

What it sounds like: ;aljwieht;oi:OAIH:lken;oiah;dP:AIOYHIOUC:H39989;:J":IOBNHK:XHPkkdh

What it actually means: *Shrugs* Any biologist willing to help me out here?

Honorable Mention Quotes of Scientific Ignorance:

"The idea that carbon dioxide is a carcinogen that's harmful to our environment is almost comical."

"Astronomy? What can you tell me about my sign?"

"How do we know dinosaurs really existed?"

"What journal are you planning on publishing your thesis in?"

"The Huffington Post."

"If humans came from monkeys, why are there still monkeys?"