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  • Book
    Michael C. Newman, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, United States, College of William & Mary's Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, VA, United States.
    Summary: The Nature and Use of Ecotoxicological Evidence: Natural Science, Statistics, Psychology, and Sociology examines how toxicologists and environmental professionals come to understand and make decisions about possible harm from pollutants. Drawing on concepts and techniques from the natural, social and mathematical sciences, the book emphasizes how pollutant-related evidence is gathered, assessed, communicated and applied in decision-making. Each chapter begins with a real-world example before exploring fundamental cognitive, social, statistical or natural science concepts to explain the opening example. Methods from other disciplines for recognizing, reducing or removing the influence of impediments in wise decision-making are highlighted in each chapter. Misreading evidence by the scientific community, and miscommunication to regulators and the public, remain major impediments to wise action in pollution issues. Which evidence comes to dominate the dialogue among scientists, regulators and decision makers depends on social and scientific dynamics. Yet psychological and sociological factors that influence the movement of evidence through scientific communities to regulators receive cursory discussion by professionals unfamiliar with the sociology literature. Toxicologists, environmental scientists, psychologists and professionals and students across the sciences will find the book useful for understanding how evidence is generated, assessed and communicated in their own fields.

    Contents:
    Section 1. Introduction
    The emerging importance of pollution
    Section 2: How individuals gather and judge evidence
    Human reasoning: everyday heuristics and foibles
    Human reasoning: within scientific traditions and rules
    Pathological reasoning within sciences
    Individual scientist: reasoning by the numbers
    Section 3: How groups weigh and apply evidence
    Social processing of evidence: commonplace dynamics and foibles
    How innovations enter and move within groups
    Evidence in social networks
    Section 4: Conclusion
    Conclusion.
    Digital Access ScienceDirect 2018