- An excellently presented piece on Four Thought BBC radio.. The "scientist" explained that conventional opinion on science had got it wrong.
- There is a reason why British people get violent and promiscuous when they consume alcohol and Mediterranean people don't; it's not cos of the alcohol it's cos of the social expectations in a culture
..hence the headline "When you drink, you are what you think". It's commonly accepted that in British society that people get violent and promiscuous when they drink, so when people do actually drink alcohol they do behave like this.. it's not really the alcohol that does this, it's purely the expectation that does this. - This is backed up by the fact that when people are given alcohol free drinks which they believe contain alcohol they do get drunk. And that in experiments you can give people alcohol, but tweak the conditions like giving them motivations to behave sensibly through bribes or social pressure and sure enough their behave stays mostly sober.
- But to parody the headline : people believe what they want to believe
- so when Kate Fox says alcohol isn't all that bad a lot of people believe her even though .. 1 minute after checking the facts I find in the listener comments that she is funded by the alcohol industry
- I was certainly taken in by listening to the radio prog "hey there is this scientist from Oxford on the radio saying that conventional thinking about alcohol is wrong"
- Rule 1 check the source; controversial viewpoint from non acadaemic body funded by the alcohol industry. Sourcewatch (only lists rightwing as it's Monbiot), infowars (info on leftwing lobbyers)
- Rule 2 Good researchers go to peer reviewed journals before they go to the media.
- The research might be perfectly valid but Shame on you BBC for not highlighting the alcohol funding link on the radio prog or text
- Why didn't the BBC sourcecheck ?? The Telegraph journalist checked
-The news story now has the phrase "SIRC has conducted research for companies in the alcohol industry, as well as the government and others"
Other good listener comments
- 1 "It's interesting to me that many alcohol suppliers actively promote the ideas of promiscuity and aggressive behavior in their advertising."
- 2 "This seems to confirm my hypothesis that a lot of people have a couple drinks not because they want to get drunk, but because they want an excuse to act stupid."
|