History Main / HardOnSoftScience

[[folder:Film]]
* Invoked in ''Film/{{Arrival}}'', when Ian, a theoretical physicist, meets Louise, he's reading her book on linguistics and the development of human languages and argues his belief that science is the foundation of civilization rather than language. Louise argues that communication is what allows those scientific discoveries to be shared and described, firmly shutting him up. Moreover, given that they're dealing with a race of StarfishAliens with a StarfishLanguage who [[spoiler:don't think in a linear manner]], Louise's expertise turns out to be far more useful than Ian's and his idea of using simple linear equations fails. Strangely, the aliens are able to recognize more complex three-dimensional equations [[spoiler:(because they are non-linear)]].

--> '''Barb''': Meteorology, oh, I love it! The science of smiling and having pretty hair while you ''point at a map.''
* ''Film/{{Sunshine}}'': Both Played With and Downplayed. The eight protagonists are: six engineers of various kinds, a theoretical / particle physicist, and a psychiatrist. You'd think the psychiatrist would be the odd one out, particularly since a point is made that he is on their mission because a previous mission which only had hard scientists & engineers failed and it's thought that was due to human (interaction) failure (so this mission is the first to include a non-engineer / non-hard-scientist). But actually the physicist is the one who stands apart from the rest and has tension with the others. It is escalated pretty soon in the movie when a crucial decision has to be made regarding the mission, and the Captain declares the decision won't be made democratically but will be solely up to the physicist, because ''he'' is the only one who can interpret, or even grasp, the complex parameters involved. So in the end, it's more "theoretical vs. applied sciences".

* The [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sokal_affair Sokal hoax]] was a downplayed example, a TakeThat from a physics professor to postmodernist social studies academics who pepper their writings with nonsensical scientific analogies to make their work sound more rigorous than it is. Sokal sent a paper of pure drivel which would embarrass a second year physics student, but wrote it so it agreed with the political and social views of the journal Social Text. Sokal's paper (in brief - the real paper contains more nonsense than can be discussed here) argued that a properly free mathematics would free us from the social constructs which are implied by our rigid, unyielding, dogmatic, anti-feminist, capitalist, and unjust theory of ''gravity''. Of course, they ''did'' publish it of their own free will. Though Sokal didn't have a problem with the humanities or soft science as such, he did want to expose what he viewed as a serious problem they had that could ruin the field.

** More examples [[http://xkcd.com/451/ here,]] as well as [[http://xkcd.com/435/ here.]] [[RuleOfThree And finally]], the AltText [[http://xkcd.com/764/ here.]] (Social scientists tend to share Munroe's view of literary criticism.)
** Some of these are more serious than others. The one against anthropologists was intended to be in jest but came across harsher than Munroe intended; the following day, he [[{{Pun}} anthropologized]].
** "''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]]'' [[RunningGag Computational Linguistics]]," starting in [[http://xkcd.com/114/ strip 114.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxe7bpaT8o And he sticks to it in public, too.]]
** [[http://xkcd.com/793/ Discussed here.]]

** In [[http://xkcd.com/1520/ "Degree-Off"]] a physicist is taken aback by a harsh remark made by a biologist ("The heroes of my field have ''slain'' [[ThePlague one of the four Horsemen of the Apocalypse]], while the heroes of ''your'' field gathered in the desert [[AtomicHate to create a new one]]"). The alt text reads "I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY' SCIENCES, [[SelfDeprecation I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER]]".
** Interestingly, despite his well-established opinions on ''computational'' linguistics (which is more computer science than linguistics anyway) he seems to have a positive opinion of linguistics as a whole. In his strip on grad students, he ranked linguistics as being a much harder science than sociology and closer to engineering in rigor.

** Heartily mocked in the author's note for [[https://www.schlockmercenary.com/2005-09-24 this strip.]]

* Inverted in [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=231 this]] ''Webcomic/HarkAVagrant'' strip. Creator/HGWells seems a little hard on ''hard'' science.

** Prior to the events of ''Starship Troopers'' there was an event known as the "Revolt of the Scientsts" in which social scientists attempted to overthrow the government and establish a utopia. It failed miserably.

* Inverted in [[http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=231 this]] Webcomic/HarkAVagrant strip. Creator/HGWells seems a little hard on ''hard'' science.

** Interestingly, despite his well-established opinions on ''computational'' linguistics (which is more computer science than linguistics anyway) he seems to have a positive opinion of linguistics as a whole, like the Sheldon Cooper example elsewhere on this page. In his strip on grad students, he ranked linguistics as being a much harder science than sociology and closer to engineering in rigor.

Think of it as an interdisciplinary TakeThat. How much the rivalry is SeriousBusiness, and how much friendly banter, depends on the people involved. It's still an influential conflict that not only has spawned new theories and schools, but became a full blown [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_wars "war"]] during the 90's. The standard comeback from soft scientists is that their subject is more "applicable" or more relevant to life and society at large (e.g.: as hit and miss as psychology can be, even biologists admit that neurological or even pharmacological solutions to mood disorders [[DrugsAreBad should only be a last resort]]). Another reaction is that these complaints come from those for whom science has been fetishized by, usually non-scientists, thus missing the point entirely and cheapening both.

This happens outside of science fiction as well. Often, scientist characters in non-ScienceFiction shows will disrespect the softer sciences when they have to deal with them. In real life, common targets are Psychology (see below), Psychiatry (often portrayed as the medical equivalent of the ChurchOfHappyology, which is ironic considering that church's own attitude towards it), Economics ("The Dismal Science"), Linguistics (except by some, c.f. [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Sheldon Cooper]]), &c.. Some can have a grudging respect for economics and political science, the two that tell if they will get any money for rockets and particle accelerators, but psychology, sociology and the like.

A related phenomenon is "hard science" and business students criticizing subjects like Literary Criticism and Philosophy for being more WildMassGuessing and [[ADegreeInUseless having little utility in careers outside the academic world]]. This overlooks actual, legitimate philosophies that adults can also make use of (like for example, studying logic and reasoning), and of course, how in RealLife businesses prefer candidates who bring different perspectives and ways of thinking to their jobs.

In another approach, this trope derives from the fact that Hard Science uses very strict methods of analysis to verify their own truth or falsehood and when said methods are applied to Soft Science the difference in method often leads to the perception of being judged harshly while Hard Researchers are just judging Soft Researchers as hard as they judge themselves.

Also see AllPsychologyIsFreudian, which also contributes to how psychology became such a target -- psychoanalysis is ''blatantly'' unscientific navel-gazing, but because it was one of psychology's most {{vocal minorit|y}}ies, the "psychologists sitting in couches charging 200 bucks to talk about YourMom" stereotype became widespread. Modern types of psychology such as behaviorism, cognitive science and neuroscience are a lot harder and more practical. In this case, calling Freudians quacks would work, but Skinner's experiments have been repeatedly verified. However, the history of scams, the possible lack of ethics -- see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment these]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment experiments]], the BedlamHouse, and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange behaviorism's possibility of abuse]] -- and "pop psychology" in general still haven't liberated it from its reputation.

Also see AllPsychologyIsFreudian, which also contributes to how psychology became such a target -- psychoanalysis is ''blatantly'' unscientific navel-gazing, but because it was one of psychology's most {{vocal minorit|y}}ies, the "psychologists sitting in couches charging 200 bucks to talk about YourMom" stereotype became widespread. Modern types of psychology such as behaviorism, cognitive science and neuroscience are a lot harder and more practical. In this case, calling Freudians quacks would work, but Skinner's experiments have been repeatedly verified. However, the history of scams, the possible lack of ethics -- see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment these]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment experiments]], the BedlamHouse, and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange behaviorism's possibility of abuse]] -- and "pop psychology" in general still haven't liberated it from its reputation.

** Creator/RandallMunroe had a strip about this [[https://xkcd.com/435/ here]]

* In Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'', a few intellectuals met by the computer scientist protagonist are insufferable idiots with little grip on reality. On the other hand, the insufferable idiots are shown to have social skills, unlike most of the protagonists, and Enoch Root is both a priest, philosopher, and [[spoiler: cryptographer]].

* {{Discussed}} and {{subverted}} in Creator/MichaelCrichton's ''Literature/{{Sphere}}''. One of the JerkAss physicists asks what somebody from such a useless field as psychology is doing on the mission. The psychologist protagonist points out (perhaps only to himself) what terrible people skills the average physicist has. It turns out the psychologist is [[spoiler: the only one mentally stable enough to handle the nigh-omnipotence the title sphere gives without killing everyone.]]

*** An episode of the prequel spinoff series, ''Series/YoungSheldon'', explains it: He had a crush/friendship with a girl who introduced him to geology during his childhood, but her relationship with a friend of his lead him to decry the field as "meaningless", even though he was fascinated by it.

* The Institute of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' practically has this as their M.O., and serves as a {{Deconstruction}} of the notion: they come off as a massive advertisement as to why the social sciences should exist. Everything they do is the result of asking themselves the question [[ForScience "Can we do X?", but never "SHOULD we do X?".]] As a result, practically everything they do is either a waste of time for them (making synthetic gorillas for some inane reason and mass-producible laser weapons that are weaker than your average pipe pistol) or a never-ending nightmare of paranoia for the surface. It's quite telling that despite being one of the only organizations that was protected from the effects of the War and, therefore, never lost any scientific knowledge, they're still the technological inferiors of several other factions. The ''only'' true breakthrough they've made has been the creation of third-generation Synths—which [[spoiler: they wouldn't have been able to do without DNA from Shaun]]—and even then, the only use they could think of for a truly sentient ArtificialHuman that was physically indistinguishable from a normal person was for menial labor. Whenever evidence is screaming at them that they should change their policies, [[IRejectYourReality they perform mind-boggling mental gymnastics]] to [[NeverMyFault avoid taking any responsibility for their actions.]]

** Later, it let the Biologists [[https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/impure stand up for themselves once more]], though with a much different argument: Trying to study something like biology with pure, fundamental mathematics would take more computing power than you could fit in a universe, and thus the things a biologist studies simply ''don't'' exist at such levels. [[spoiler:She's more than happy to team up and hate Chemists though]].

* The page picture is the first image of the ''Blog/WhatIf'' entry [[http://what-if.xkcd.com/111/ "All the Money"]], in which author Randall Munroe {{handwave}}s away how you managed to acquire all the money that exists by invoking AWizardDidIt. The image is of Rob and Megan from ''Webcomic/{{xkcd}}'', and Rob has drawn a pentacle on the floor.

** The [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grievance_Studies_affair Grievance Studies hoax]], or "Sokal squared", similarly produced ludicrous papers mimicking the tropes of humanities, in particular gender studies. Several of these papers were accepted for publication, sometimes in quite well-established and respected journals.

* In 2012, an atheist philosopher from Belgium [[http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2012/09/28/philosopher-pulls-a-sokal-on-theology-conferences/ duped a theology conference with a Sokal-style hoax]]. The philosophers who were duped acknowledged they thought the paper was bupkis, but admitted it wasn't out of [[JerkassHasAPoint the range]] of what they had previously published.

* Occurs in SpeculativeFiction: writers and readers of ScienceFiction on the harder side of the scale sometimes look down on soft SF or -- even worse -- ''{{Fantasy}}.'' This even occurs within fantasy with the debate of hard vs. soft magic systems. Fantasy youtuber [[https://youtu.be/Xg42d7fcvSs Daniel P. Green discusses the debates over "rules" and "wonder" based fantasy here]]

This happens outside of science fiction as well. Often, scientist characters in non-ScienceFiction shows will disrespect the softer sciences when they have to deal with them. In real life, [[AcceptableTargets common targets]] are Psychology (see below), Psychiatry (often portrayed as the medical equivalent of the ChurchOfHappyology, which is ironic considering that church's own attitude towards it), Economics ("The Dismal Science"), Linguistics (except by some, c.f. [[Series/TheBigBangTheory Sheldon Cooper]]), &c.. Some can have a grudging respect for economics and political science, the two that tell if they will get any money for rockets and particle accelerators, but psychology, sociology and the like are AcceptableTargets.

Also see AllPsychologyIsFreudian, which also contributes to how psychology became such a target -- psychoanalysis is ''blatantly'' unscientific navel-gazing, but because it was one of psychology's most {{vocal minorit|y}}ies, the "psychologists sitting in couches charging 200 bucks to talk about YourMom" stereotype became a NeverLiveItDown. Modern types of psychology such as behaviorism, cognitive science and neuroscience are a lot harder and more practical. In this case, calling Freudians quacks would work, but Skinner's experiments have been repeatedly verified. However, the history of scams, the possible lack of ethics -- see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment these]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment experiments]], the BedlamHouse, and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange behaviorism's possibility of abuse]] -- and "pop psychology" in general still haven't liberated it from being an acceptable target.

** Nearly every academic discipline has this; it's hardly unique to the sciences. Philosophers are treated as AcceptableTargets by pretty much every discipline, including - maybe especially - philosophy itself. Economists likewise. And sociologists, especially the more qualitatively-minded ones. And virtually every time someone in a more traditional academic discipline deigns to even mention Communications, it's in the form of a TakeThat. In all cases, these things can range anywhere from good-natured ribbing to genuine seething hatred. Many who are so hateful of other fields will however not be well regarded, no matter their skill in their own field.

** Some of these are more serious than others. The one against anthropologists was intended to be in jest, but came across harsher than Munroe intended; the following day, he [[IncrediblyLamePun anthropologized]].

[[folder: Radio]]

* The Institute of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' practically has this as their M.O., and it serves as a {{Deconstruction}} of the notion: they come off as a massive advertisement as to why the social sciences should exist. Everything they do is the result of asking themselves the question [[ForScience "Can we do X?", but never "SHOULD we do X?".]] As a result, practically everything they do is either a waste of time for them (making synthetic gorillas for some inane reason and flashy laser weapons weaker than your average pipe pistol) and a never-ending nightmare of paranoia for the surface. It's quite telling that despite being one of the only organizations in the Fallout universe that was protected from the effects of the War and therefore never lost any scientific knowledge, they're still the technological inferiors of several other factions. In fact, the ''only'' true breakthrough they've made has been the creation of third-generation Synths—which [[spoiler: they wouldn't have been able to do without DNA from Shaun]]—and even then, the only use they could think of for a truly sentient ArtificialHuman that was physically indistinguishable from a normal person was for menial labor. Whenever evidence is screaming at them that they should change their policies, [[IRejectYourReality they perform mind-boggling mental gymnastics]] to [[NeverMyFault avoid taking any responsibility for their actions.]]

** This behavior was actually the subject of a TakeThat in an episode where Booth and Bones head to a mental hospital where Bones makes pointed [[TakeThat remarks]] to the head psychologist there. Eventually after a while of this the psychologist finally gets sick of this and points out that while her expertise in the dead is all fine and dandy, he's using his training to help 'living people' who desperately need it, soft science or not.

-->-- '''Nobel Laureate, Ernest Rutherford, whose Prize was in [[{{Irony}} Chemistry]]'''

** Bones and Sweets are interrogating a super genius because he menaced a scientist who was building a device that theoretically could destroy the universe. The man works as a welder. When Sweets tells him that for being a genius his profession is very humble, the man retorts that at least his work is real-psychologists cannot say that of themselves.

** "''[[PrecisionFStrike Fuck]]'' [[RunningGag Computational Linguistics]]," starting in [[http://www.xkcd.com/114/ strip 114.]] [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mpxe7bpaT8o And he sticks to it in public, too.]]

-->If it can't be expressed in figures, it is not science; it is opinion.

Also see AllPsychologyIsFreudian, which also contributes to how psychology became such a target - psychoanalysis is ''blatantly'' unscientific navel-gazing, but because it was one of psychology's most {{vocal minorit|y}}ies, the "psychologists sitting in couches charging 200 bucks to talk about YourMom" stereotype became a NeverLiveItDown. Modern types of psychology such as behaviorism, cognitive science and neuroscience are a lot harder and more practical. In this case, calling Freudians quacks would work, but Skinner's experiments have been repeatedly verified. However, the history of scams, the possible lack of ethics - see [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milgram_experiment these]] [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment experiments]], the BedlamHouse, and [[Literature/AClockworkOrange behaviorism's possibility of abuse]] - and "pop psychology" in general still haven't liberated it from being an acceptable target.

* ''Webcomic/SaturdayMorningBreakfastCereal'', otherwise noted for indulging heavily in this trope, [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/?id=2556 lampooned Rutherford's statement]] by claiming that every physicist has a couple of years in grad school when they don't even know what questions they should be asking, followed by a decade, ''maybe'' a decade and a half of productive work, followed by spending the rest of their lives telling other scientists how deluded they are.

* The Institute of ''VideoGame/Fallout4'' practically has this as their M.O., and they come off as a massive advertisement as to why the social sciences should exist. Everything they do is the result of asking themselves the question [[ForScience "Can we do X?", but never "SHOULD we do X?".]] As a result, practically everything they do is either a waste of time for them (making synthetic gorillas for some inane reason and flashy laser weapons weaker than your average pipe pistol) and a never-ending nightmare of paranoia for the surface. It's quite telling that despite being one of the only organizations in the Fallout universe that was protected from the effects of the War and therefore never lost any scientific knowledge, they're still the technological inferiors of several other factions. In fact, the ''only'' true breakthrough they've made has been the creation of third-generation Synths—which [[spoiler: they wouldn't have been able to do without DNA from Shaun]]—and even then, the only use they could think of for a truly sentient ArtificialHuman that was physically indistinguishable from a normal person was for menial labor. Whenever evidence is screaming at them that they should change their policies, [[IRejectYourReality they perform mind-boggling mental gymnastics]] to [[NeverMyFault avoid taking any responsibility for their actions.]]

* In Creator/NealStephenson's ''Literature/{{Cryptonomicon}}'', a few intellectuals met by the computer scientist protagonist are insufferable idiots with little grip on reality. On the other hand, the insufferable idiots are shown to have social skills, unlike [[{{Nerd}} most of the protagonists]], and Enoch Root is both a priest, philosopher, and [[spoiler: cryptographer]].

Many "hard" ScienceFiction authors, trained as they are in the hard sciences, tend to take digs at the softer sciences in their works. The reasons for this vary, but the most common criticism is that it's much harder to perform repeatable experiments. Scientists strive towards empiricism and the "scientific method", and many humanities or social sciences are trying to study things that cannot easily be studied strictly and subjected to experimentation, which makes writers feel justified in considering them as "pseudoscience".

* Gordon Freeman of ''Machinima/FreemansMind'' feels indignant toward psychology. Although, this may have less to do with scientific elitism than the fact that Gordon is a ''[[HeroicComedicSociopath friggin' loon]]'', and as such not enamored of what they probably have to say about him. He's even more dismissive of string theorists, who are toward the soft end of physics research, essentially regarding them as goat-sacrificing cultists.

** In [[http://xkcd.com/1520/ "Degree-Off"]] a physicist is taken aback by a harsh remark made by a biologist. The alt text reads "I'M SORRY, FROM YOUR YEARS OF CONDESCENDING TOWARD THE 'SQUISHY' SCIENCES, [[SelfDeprecation I ASSUMED YOU'D BE A LITTLE HARDER]]".