For example, numerous peer-reviewed scientific studies have found no link between silicon breast implants and illness. Still, tort lawyers have won huge settlements against companies like Dow Corning by parading a series of "expert" witnesses who claim there is a causal link. Clearly, the lawyers are depending on juries that are ignorant of science and the scientific process so they can be manipulated by so-called "experts."

This example is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Ignorance of science and the scientific process leads to people believing pseudoscience, often with harmful effects in both the political arena (e.g. The Greens) which affects the laws that get passed and things like personal health decisions. Ignorance can be both painful and expensive when people fall for quacks and fraudulent health gadgets like those electric "abdominal exercisers" advertised for months before being shut down by the FDA.