I’m going to have to disagree with you on this.
People have all sorts of beliefs that can qualitatively be proven as right or wrong. For example, all the wingnuts who believe that the COVID vaccine has trackers from Microsoft. Their beliefs are 100% bereft of reality.
Now, can they go ahead and act on those mistaken beliefs? Sure. But that doesn’t make their beliefs correct in any way.
While I get that this is an article geared to laymen/the general public, I do think we should be holding science communication to a higher standard.
I agree with you 100%.
It’s worth pointing out that feeling like you work in a pointless, meaningless job doesn’t necessarily make it true. This paper is solely about people’s perceptions, not facts.
You won’t find that level of detail in typical articles, because they are intended for the general public and are intended to be an overview that a layman can comprehend.
However, the paper itself, which the article links to, has more detail including deformation testing.
The size of a person’s household or whether they live in the city are not the sole factors that go into a decision on what car to purchase.
A person can live alone but regularly car pool with coworkers, get together with multiple friends, go on day trips with family, or make extra income by driving for Uber (larger vehicles can charge more). Heck, sometimes just needing extra leg or head room rules out most regular sedans and makes an SUV more comfortable.
In addition, if a person’s activities require a lot of cargo capacity, that essentially leaves you with either an SUV or a pickup as the primary options. So whether it’s for luggage, buying stock for a family store, etc… that could be another reason for purchasing an SUV.
Sometimes, people feel that having a higher view of the road is safer because they can see more of what’s ahead of them.
So don’t fall prey to judging people as only needing an SUV if they have a large household or live in rural areas. It’s a lot more involved than that.
A person’s perception is highly informed by how well or poorly they understand the subject or situation in question.
Let’s say you got stood up by a first date because they got hit by a car on their way to you. Your perception of them is going to vary wildly depending on whether or not you know the facts behind why they didn’t show up.
Similarly, knowing how you actually fit into things at your job - i.e. your importance to your working group, the company, it’s customers, society itself, allows you to have a more accurate set of facts to base your perception on.
So yes, the truth matters.