Jonah Lehrer responds to Christopher Chabris’ review.
The question of how to write about science – especially when the science is unsettled and provisional – is something I struggle with every day. It is what makes this job so fun and challenging. Personally, I disagree with Chabris’ recommendations. I don’t think it’s necessary to delve into the replication history of every experiment, or to describe the controls for every study. My book describes dozens of different academic papers and books – such a strategy would quickly become unreadable.
Lehrer admits a few factual mistakes, but argues that his approach is required in order to effectually write about science for a broad audience.