Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism
When the scientific method yields discoveries that imperil people’s lifestyle or worldviews or impinge on corporate vested interests, the public and political response can be anything but favorable. Sometimes the response slides into overt denial of scientific facts, although this denial is often cl...
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| Format: | Article |
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PsychOpen
2016-08-01
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| Series: | Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
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| Online Access: | http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/604 |
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doaj-c0a90884502e4e44aa759bb4df3591c72020-11-25T03:31:08ZengPsychOpenJournal of Social and Political Psychology2195-33252016-08-014253755310.5964/jspp.v4i2.604jspp.v4i2.604Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and SkepticismStephan Lewandowsky0Michael E. Mann1Nicholas J. L. Brown2Harris Friedman3School of Experimental Psychology and Cabot Institute, University of Bristol, Bristol, United KingdomDepartments of Meteorology & Geosciences, Penn State University, State College, PA, USAUniversity Medical Center, University of Groningen, Groningen, The NetherlandsUniversity of Florida, Gainesville, FL, USAWhen the scientific method yields discoveries that imperil people’s lifestyle or worldviews or impinge on corporate vested interests, the public and political response can be anything but favorable. Sometimes the response slides into overt denial of scientific facts, although this denial is often claimed to involve “skepticism”. We outline the distinction between true skepticism and denial with several case studies. We propose some guidelines to enable researchers to differentiate legitimate critical engagement from bad-faith harassment, and to enable members of the public to pursue their skeptical engagement and critique without such engagement being mistaken for harassment.http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/604rejection of sciencepublic involvement in sciencecritical debatetransparencyharassment of scientists |
| collection |
DOAJ |
| language |
English |
| format |
Article |
| sources |
DOAJ |
| author |
Stephan Lewandowsky Michael E. Mann Nicholas J. L. Brown Harris Friedman |
| spellingShingle |
Stephan Lewandowsky Michael E. Mann Nicholas J. L. Brown Harris Friedman Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism Journal of Social and Political Psychology rejection of science public involvement in science critical debate transparency harassment of scientists |
| author_facet |
Stephan Lewandowsky Michael E. Mann Nicholas J. L. Brown Harris Friedman |
| author_sort |
Stephan Lewandowsky |
| title |
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism |
| title_short |
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism |
| title_full |
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism |
| title_fullStr |
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism |
| title_full_unstemmed |
Science and the Public: Debate, Denial, and Skepticism |
| title_sort |
science and the public: debate, denial, and skepticism |
| publisher |
PsychOpen |
| series |
Journal of Social and Political Psychology |
| issn |
2195-3325 |
| publishDate |
2016-08-01 |
| description |
When the scientific method yields discoveries that imperil people’s lifestyle or worldviews or impinge on corporate vested interests, the public and political response can be anything but favorable. Sometimes the response slides into overt denial of scientific facts, although this denial is often claimed to involve “skepticism”. We outline the distinction between true skepticism and denial with several case studies. We propose some guidelines to enable researchers to differentiate legitimate critical engagement from bad-faith harassment, and to enable members of the public to pursue their skeptical engagement and critique without such engagement being mistaken for harassment. |
| topic |
rejection of science public involvement in science critical debate transparency harassment of scientists |
| url |
http://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/604 |
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