SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
from the DNA->SNA->SLA->TLA->TBA->NBA->NBC->NEC->SEC->SEO->SCO->TCO->TMO->GMO dept.
The Washington Post contains an article on a recent survey by Oklahoma State University where over 80 percent of Americans support “mandatory labels on foods containing DNA,”
The Oklahoma State survey result is probably an example of the intersection between scientific ignorance and political ignorance, both of which are widespread.The most obvious explanation for the data is that most of these people don’t really understand what DNA is, and don’t realize that it is contained in almost all food. When they read that a strange substance called “DNA” might be included in their food, they might suspect that this is some dangerous chemical inserted by greedy corporations for their own nefarious purposes.
The article discusses the wider issue of scientific ignorance driving policy decisions, and there is some further comment at io9. A summary of the full survey results is available (PDF).
(Score: 2) by meisterister on Saturday January 24 2015, @08:13PM
Since the mere act of living involves sorting through massive quantities of data, our brains developed heuristics to try to free up some mental processing time for whatever else early humans were doing besides staying alive. It looks to me like at least one of the following is true:
1. In the US, we're using the heuristic of "Ban $CHEMICAL_SOUNDING_THING? Sure!"
2. That many people either genuinely don't know what DNA is or couldn't remember.
Now, if we would teach critical thinking in this country, people would be far less likely to be fooled by things like this.
(May or may not have been) Posted from my K6-2, Athlon XP, or Pentium I/II/III.