Online Public Relations Thoughts

 Scientists are well aware of human psychology bending results to fit beliefs.  It is subtle and unconscious twisting of perception.  So, they go to extreme lengths to keep data clean until the end of an experiment.  This is why a muon experiment at Fermilab in Illinois has taken on a "cloak and dagger" aura with a secret about results vested in only a few people.  If scientists must be so strict, what about the rest of us?  Do we reach conclusions too easily based on assumptions and prejudices?  Certainly, we do, which should be a call for humility in communications.  We don't know all the facts in daily events of our lives, so writing and speaking about them should use hedging.  "We think this is so.  It appears to be..."  Some communicators prefer to be absolute and without doubt.  They are often wrong and their credibility suffers.  We just had a president who bent facts to suit his views and was daily enmeshed in misinformation and lies.  He carried millions with him in his certitude, but he has been impeached twice, and the majority of voters want nothing more to do with him.  A dose of humility would have done him good.