Anti-Scientific Americans
Available on Amazon
Author: Matthew Motta
Genre: Non-fiction
Description: Anti-intellectualism has long been a powerful force in American political life. It has also regularly been the subject of both scholarly and public interest. In Anti-Scientific Americans, Matthew Motta revives Richard Hofstadter’s pioneering insights from the 1960s on the subject and offers new theoretical and data-driven insights into the prevalence, origins, and policy consequences of anti-intellectualism in the US. He begins by conceptualizing anti-intellectualism as the dislike and distrust of scientists, academics, and other experts. He then brings together “micro-level” survey data from cross-sectional and longitudinal surveys spanning six decades, and aggregated “macro-level” data from hundreds of opinion polls dating back to the 1940s, to show that anti-intellectualism is both a pervasive and pernicious presence in American public life. Motta further examines how anti-intellectualism both shapes and is shaped by Americans’ opposition to the role that experts play in the policymaking process. Methodologically rigorous and empirically powerful, this book concludes by highlighting how we can help reduce the prevalence and impact of anti-intellectualism in American politics and restore Americans’ faith in experts.
My Review
Anti-intellectualism is an irrational distrust of intellectuals, such as scientists, intellectual pursuits themselves, and critical thinking overall. At an individual level, it leads to actions and behaviors that are opposed to one’s own self-interests, such as forgoing the use of vaccines or other life-saving treatments in favor of non-scientific remedies. At a societal level, it leads to polarization and influences lawmakers to implement policies that run counter to that society’s well-being, such as the recent measles outbreak in Texas, caused in part by widespread misinformation and populist sentiments.
Matthew Motta’s Anti-Scientific Americans is essentially a narration of an expansive study conducted to determine the prevalence of anti-intellectualism in the United States, which demographics are the most anti-intellectualist, the impact of anti-intellectualism in government policymaking, the historical developments of anti-intellectualism in the 20th and 21st centuries, and, from his conclusions, create recommendations for combating anti-intellectualism. In certain sections, this book does discuss the statistical methods and mathematics involved in the study, which may be off-putting to some readers, but the majority of the book seeks to explain the findings and their consequences in natural, everyday terms. In my opinion, any reader could skip these sections entirely if they wish to do so and still learn a great deal from this book. For those who are interested in the details of the study itself, the book includes an appendix with detailed information.
I appreciated the strict neutrality of the author’s tone and treatment of the book’s subject matter. He fairly evaluates the data he used for his study and the conclusions drawn from it. He’s not afraid to admit the limitations and caveats of the various methods he used to assess specific aspects of anti-intellectualism. He never used the conclusions drawn from his study as a reason to lambast particular groups of people. Instead, he used his findings to offer clear guidance to help mitigate the effects of anti-intellectualism and decrease its prevalence over the course of the coming decades.
I’ll not discuss the specific findings the author has revealed nor the consequences which he infers, as the author himself does a far better job than I could hope to do in this small book review. Nonetheless, I believe his findings are highly pertinent to today’s socio-political climate – if there was ever a “best time” to read a book such as this, now is that time.
