Seeing and believing: The variety of scientists' responses to contrary data

Abstract

Scientists rely on data and evidence to construct scientific knowledge or justified beliefs about the world. How are data and scientific beliefs related? In what ways do scientists respond to data? Sixty scientists were interviewed. Content analyses of scientists'accounts of their experiences with contrary data revealed their views of the relation between scientific belief and data. The scientists expressed a range of epistemological positions. Positivist and constructivist positions were articulated almost equally. More than half of the scientists held more than one epistemological position, and shifted between positions in their accounts. Scientists' accounts were used to generate a model of the variety of ways in which scientists respond to contrary data. The model shows six alternative paths that scientists could take when faced with contrary data, and makes predictions about the likely behavior that follows.