It baffles me that so many Americans have so little understanding of the basic sciences and how the scientific process works. Science is everywhere in our daily lives and yet far too many people don't have a clue about science. This ignorance is seen in many ways in our culture and in this "news story" it's illustrated perfectly.
The quick, cheap and superficial headline makes the story exciting for the general public and since the Op-Ed was published by a respected journal, it lends the tale credence. It appears that many news organizations do not have a science editor to vet a story before it's reported erroneously as the author of the column makes clear that "
T)his is a set of casual observations" that wasn't part of a peer-reviewed study. And yet it was claimed as fact on The Huffington Post's front page, among many other outlets.
A real study would not use "a random assortment of photos pulled from the Internet." Just as I'm often amused by the LOLcats that are posted on DU, (thank you, SalmonChantedEvening!), I know that these are not photographs that represent the normal life of these cats. Likewise, the photos of the dogs observed by the column's author were not necessarily indicative of anything. They were probably posted online or chosen because of the dog's unusual expressions or humorous behavior.
Most dog owners would dispute this article just based on their own experiences. Like lots of others, our dog loves to be hugged and petted and he seeks affection. There was a interesting segment in the re-make of "Cosmos" where Neil deGrasse Tyson discusses how wolves evolved to become today's dogs, (Episode 2, "Some of the Things That Molecules Do"
. Briefly, ancient humans domesticated the canines by developing a symbiotic relationship of mutual benefits. This modern observation was based on evidence of the evolutionary process.
Perhaps this un-scientific column will inspire a proper study but, as I said, I think the basic premise is unlikely to be universally factual.
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