Question

Criminal Justice.

How much weight should scientists give to a theory’s popularity? How is it even possible that theories without any concrete evidence can be popular?

Answer 1

Popularity of theory should not be given weightage in justice system which must be based on rationality, justness and fairness of of theory. However, it might be true that the theory gets popularity generally when it is considered just and fair but then also popularity should not be given weightage directly.

Theories without even concrete evidence usually donot get popular but in some cases it may happen. There can be possibility that a theory may be effective in a particular scenario only and once evaluated for that scenario it might get popularity to be applied in many other scenarios too without evaluating it in those situations.