Science is human

This morning I was reading the Science Needs Story blog by Randy Olson and reflecting on where to take my writing. It is easy for me to stay entangled in the weeds of specific mis-uses of Statistics in practice — because I lived among them for two decades. But I left the life of a practicing statistician to break out of those weeds and I want to connect my experiences with those nasty weeds to the whole pond — and its larger ecosystem. I do get glimpses of the pond, in moments of clarity, but the weeds keep a strong grip on me. Randy Olson’s call to “Make Science Human” was good motivation for poking my head above the surface today.

Each day, in the news and in my interactions with people around me, I see stark parallels between larger issues confronting humanity and the roots of our mis-uses of Statistics: our longing to simplify complex situations by buying into the use of false dichotomies; our longing to be pretend we are being “objective”; our blind trust in sophisticated black box techniques or processes we don’t understand; our longing for personal and professional success relative culturally engrained, but clearly flawed, criteria; and our extreme discomfort with uncertainty and change.

As I work to find smaller self-contained narratives around this topic, these realizations are simultaneously depressing and inspiring to me. The “Make Science Human” idea resonates with me on so many frequencies — beyond those intended by Olson. The truth is Science is human and we need accept and embrace that — to ultimately do better science. As much as we try (and I agree with the trying!) to keep Science separate from the challenges and faults of human experience, Science is done by humans within a human constructed culture. How can we expect it not to suffer from many of the same things that creep into other human cultures, processes, institutions, etc. Convincing ourselves that it sits above our faults is in fact one of our faults — and it ultimately it hurts Science, which just spreads the hurt.

Where does Statistics come into this? I see its methods and procedures being used as if they take the human out of Science, as if they add a magic level of objectivity, as if they are not subject to the common faults of humans. This is naive and the consequences are finally getting noticed.

I love Science. I believe in the potential of statistical inference. And, I believe in the value of acknowledging and embracing the inherently human aspects of how we “do science.”