Fang Hui
School of Electronic Science and Engineering, State Key Laboratory of Analytical Chemistry for Life Science, Nanjing University, No. 163, Xianlin Avenue, Qixia District, Nanjing, China,
Sci Eng Ethics. 2015 Feb;21(1):41-50. doi: 10.1007/s11948-013-9512-x. Epub 2014 Jan 10.
New discoveries and theories are crucial for the development of science, but they are often initially resisted by the scientific community. This paper analyses resistance to scientific discoveries that supplement previous research results or conclusions with new phenomena, such as long chains in macromolecules, Alfvén waves, parity nonconservation in weak interactions and quasicrystals. Construal-level theory is used to explain that the probability of new discoveries may be underestimated because of psychological distance. Thus, the insufficiently examined scope of an accepted theory may lead to overstating the suitable scope and underestimating the probability of its undiscovered counter-examples. Therefore, psychological activity can result in people instinctively resisting new discoveries. Direct evidence can help people judge the validity of a hypothesis with rational thinking. The effects of authorities and textbooks on the resistance to discoveries are also discussed. From the results of our analysis, suggestions are provided to reduce resistance to real discoveries, which will benefit the development of science.
新发现和新理论对科学发展至关重要，但它们最初往往会遭到科学界的抵制。本文分析了科学界对那些用新现象补充先前研究结果或结论的科学发现的抵制，比如大分子中的长链、阿尔文波、弱相互作用中的宇称不守恒以及准晶体。构念水平理论被用来解释，由于心理距离，新发现的可能性可能会被低估。因此，一个被接受理论的检验范围不足可能会导致高估其适用范围，并低估其未被发现的反例的可能性。所以，心理活动会导致人们本能地抵制新发现。直接证据有助于人们通过理性思考判断假设的有效性。本文还讨论了权威和教科书对抵制发现的影响。根据我们的分析结果，提出了减少对真实发现的抵制的建议，这将有益于科学的发展。
