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Countering science denial

Nature Human Behaviour volume 3, pages 889–890 (2019)Cite this article

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As the spectre of ‘post-truth’ looms over society, an important question remains: how to effectively respond to the growing climate of science denial? New research shows that leaving denial unanswered can have negative consequences. Fortunately, countering science deniers can reduce their influence, even among those most likely to hold anti-scientific beliefs.

Writing in Nature Human Behaviour, Schmid and Betsch4 address this concern and present six studies that jointly illustrate how science advocates can effectively rebut science denial in public. The authors start their investigation by delineating a key difference between healthy scepticism about science—a process which usually involves updating one’s beliefs in light of new evidence—versus science denial, which is commonly thought to be the result of the motivated rejection of science. In other words, people may be motivated to update their beliefs only when the evidence confirms what they already want to believe.

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  1. Department of Psychology, Downing Site, School of Biological Sciences, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK

    Sander van der Linden

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  1. Sander van der Linden
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Correspondence to Sander van der Linden.

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van der Linden, S. Countering science denial. Nat Hum Behav 3, 889–890 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0631-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0631-5

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