Without a Google Scholar search, I’d just point to how industry dealt with things like asbestos, lead, tobacco, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Science definitely needs scrutiny, debate, and evidence. That said, whenever someone’s loudly proclaiming that an entire field is corrupt and incorrect, it should raise suspicions.
What’s more likely: that thousands of (generally underpaid) researchers in hundreds of competing labs worldwide are all in cahoots, or that a few dissenting voices are funded by industry to argue that point of view?
I agree that for topics where there are transparent, obvious, and one-sided financial incentives on one side, and the other side has approximate consensus among experts, I agree that the side with bad incentives (and are the numerical minority) are more suspicious.
However, when I think of industry funding for research, I mostly don’t think of
a few dissenting voices are funded by industry to argue that point of view
I think more of stuff in the vein of people actually trying to figure things out (eg, BigTech funds a lot of applied and even theoretical CS research, especially in AI and distributed systems).
I’d just point to how industry dealt with things like asbestos, lead, tobacco, and greenhouse gas emissions
I don’t know much about the other examples. I agree with greenhouse gases. My impression is that there was a lot of misinformation/bad science about vaping, and this was at least as much (and likely more) the fault of academic researchers as it was the fault of entrenched corporate interests.
I wouldn’t expect a marked difference in the quality of non-controversial research whether funded by a national granting agency or private industry. That said, I’m not an expert on the topic, either.
As for “controversial” science in the sense of “any science that business/industry doesn’t like,” the pattern is quite similar whether we’re talking about lead, asbestos, climate change, et cetera:
Find a couple of researchers who will play ball to say your product is safe despite all the evidence to the contrary. Point to this repeatedly any time the topic comes up. Ignore the mountain of evidence that says you’re wrong at all costs, and undermine it any way you can. Buy as many politicians as you can to try and prevent regulation.
As for vaping, I’d need to see some examples of bad academic research. I’m not sure you can blame the scientists for the consequences of poorly-regulated businesses. They can only test the products that they’re given and tell you whether they’re safe. They can’t tell you if a manufacturer is going to change the oil they use or decide to include heavy metals.
Without a Google Scholar search, I’d just point to how industry dealt with things like asbestos, lead, tobacco, and greenhouse gas emissions.
Science definitely needs scrutiny, debate, and evidence. That said, whenever someone’s loudly proclaiming that an entire field is corrupt and incorrect, it should raise suspicions.
What’s more likely: that thousands of (generally underpaid) researchers in hundreds of competing labs worldwide are all in cahoots, or that a few dissenting voices are funded by industry to argue that point of view?
I agree that for topics where there are transparent, obvious, and one-sided financial incentives on one side, and the other side has approximate consensus among experts, I agree that the side with bad incentives (and are the numerical minority) are more suspicious.
However, when I think of industry funding for research, I mostly don’t think of
I think more of stuff in the vein of people actually trying to figure things out (eg, BigTech funds a lot of applied and even theoretical CS research, especially in AI and distributed systems).
I don’t know much about the other examples. I agree with greenhouse gases. My impression is that there was a lot of misinformation/bad science about vaping, and this was at least as much (and likely more) the fault of academic researchers as it was the fault of entrenched corporate interests.
I wouldn’t expect a marked difference in the quality of non-controversial research whether funded by a national granting agency or private industry. That said, I’m not an expert on the topic, either.
As for “controversial” science in the sense of “any science that business/industry doesn’t like,” the pattern is quite similar whether we’re talking about lead, asbestos, climate change, et cetera:
Find a couple of researchers who will play ball to say your product is safe despite all the evidence to the contrary. Point to this repeatedly any time the topic comes up. Ignore the mountain of evidence that says you’re wrong at all costs, and undermine it any way you can. Buy as many politicians as you can to try and prevent regulation.
As for vaping, I’d need to see some examples of bad academic research. I’m not sure you can blame the scientists for the consequences of poorly-regulated businesses. They can only test the products that they’re given and tell you whether they’re safe. They can’t tell you if a manufacturer is going to change the oil they use or decide to include heavy metals.
That’s up to the regulators to prevent.