Assessing the damage

To understand the depths to which we have sunk, we need some data.  Now, as a senior lecturer at a London medical school, my interests lie in medical endarkenment.  The best data set I've come across in this area is the Wellcome Trust's Wellcome Monitor.  It is a high quality survey of over 1000 UK residents views on science, and medicine in particular.  The Trust aims to repeat the survey in the future, which will be an invaluable resource.

If you know of a similar data set in another area, let me know and I'll add it

Most of the questions in the Wellcome Monitor are fairly medically-oriented, but there are some simple observations on common myths that are quite informative.  Take astrology:

 

There's some good news there.  A surprising number of people claim to never read their horoscope.  As I occasionally read my horoscope in the paper for a laugh, I'm in the rarely category. So, an impressive 79% of people read their horoscope either rarely or never at all.  Fortunately, a similar number of people (69%) consider astrology to be "not scientific at all", and only 1% of people suffer from the delusion that this witchcraft is "very scientific".  

There's some scope there for improvement, but on the whole, the UK public seem to be pretty well informed when it comes to astrology.


On the other hand, the news for people interested in the scam that is complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) is less encouraging:

Yes, you are reading that data correctly, 45% of people surveyed by the Trust have used CAM.


So, while 69% of people are aware that astrology is nonsense, only 55% of people hold the same view of CAM.  There's some work to be done there.


EDIT: Thanks to @xtaldave for pointing out that 1% of the UK population is roughly the population of Glasgow.  That's how many people think that astrology is "very scientific".


*headdesk* indeed.



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