Why would someone give another responder a thumbs down in the science and mathematics section?

Question

I am not talking about people who are not knowledable in science and may slip in, but the people who are. Especially the people who have posted their credentials on their profile and have answered several questions in the SM section.

How can their answers be wrong if it is pertaining to science?

Edit:

The reason why I am asking, is I always thought that in science and mathematics, there can only be one answer. It either is or isn't.

Answer 1

Most often, because they have already ruled out the answer by non-science criteria. This happens most often with emotionally, morally, or politically charged issues like evolution, embryonic stem cell research, global warming, and so on. I have also seen answers that were just plain wrong, posted by people who should have known better, according to their claimed credentials. Sometimes most of the answer is correct but one or two parts are way off base. There, a thumbs-down is at least a red flag that the answer deserves some scrutiny.

Answer 2

I give a thumbs down if an answer is wrong in science (some are or are not complete), or if an answer really irritates me.

We all make mistakes - I have to admit giving at least one wrong answer but something at the back of my mind told me to go back to it and I got it fixed. No one had put thumbs down on it (in science) - I wish they had.

If the answer is wrong then that is worse then getting no answer at all. It is all the more important to get the answer right if your score makes askers believe you ARE right all the time.

If I see a good answer I give a thumbs up every time - I may not get to voting on it.

Answer 3

You think it is bad here, trot over to social science, ot another rigor-less site. It happens here, but the prevalence of random " thumbs down " is not great. We do have " invaders " of an ideological nature here from time to time.