Another criticism is that social sciences tend to be compromised more frequently by politics, since results from social science may threaten certain centers of power in a society, particularly ones which fund the research institutions. (For example, in the US, corporations and the state are frequently cited as these centers of power.) Further, complexity exacerbates the problems, since observed social data may be the result of factors which are hard to evaluate in isolation.

Natural science most generally is the rational study of the things we know about, the universe via rules or laws of natural order rather than divine actions involving a human-like consciousness exercising its control over all things at whim. The term natural science is also used to identify science as a discipline following the scientific method, in contrast to natural philosophy, or in contrast with social sciences, which use the same scientific method applied to different subjects. Natural sciences form the basis for the applied sciences. Together, the natural and applied sciences are distinguished from the social sciences on the one hand, and from the humanities, theology and the arts on the other. Mathematics, statistics and computer science are not natural sciences, but provide many tools and frameworks used within the natural sciences.

Alongside this traditional usage, more recently the words "natural sciences" are sometimes used in a way more closely matching their everyday meaning, stemming from natural history. In this sense "natural sciences" can be an alternative phrase for biological sciences, involved in biological processes, or perhaps also the earth sciences, as might be distinguished from the physical sciences (more directly involved in the study of physical and chemical laws underlying the universe).