I observed the creation of junk science first hand a few years ago at a Brewing Symposium at the University of Leuven in Belgium. Researchers were ready to use fisticuffs to settle their emotional arguments.
Researchers from two separate universities that had been one university before they split based upon language differences fought for the pride of their own university as though their life depended upon the outcome.
In 1968, tensions between the Dutch-speaking and French-speaking communities led to the splitting of the bilingual Catholic University of Leuven into two “sister” universities, with the Dutch-language university becoming a fully functioning independent institution in Leuven in 1970.
The two universities have been at war ever since.
It was a split, right down the middle, even the university library was split based upon odd and even call numbers. It was war, the Dutch vs the French academics.
I realized that just like legalistic religion, people hold their knowledge as a possession and form an ego identity around it. When the issues are emotional, logical reasoning does not work. They make a decision based upon how they “feel” and then fall in love with their decision. They only see the facts that support the decision they have already made and are blind to any facts to the contrary.
They will even attack the messenger who asks questions, the answers to which are contrary to their position.
I learned much more at that conference than brewing science.