Two articles on devaluing expert opinion and the use of denial language during the Brexit campaign.
New Scientist Stefan Rousseau/PA/Press Association ‘Trying to change someone’s mind by giving them the facts usually just makes them dig in. For reason to triumph, scientists need to learn to engage with emotion. HOWEVER you feel about the result of the UK’s EU referendum, the campaign itself cannot have left anything other than a foul taste in the mouth. The willingness to bend, ignore or invent facts was depressing and shameful. Both sides were up to it, but Leave told the biggest whoppers. And to the victors, the spoils. It is from their ranks that the next government will probably emerge, so their abuse of facts needs to be held to account.
Let us start with Michael Gove. Pressed in a Sky News interview about expert warnings on the economy, he glibly replied: “I think the people in this country have had enough of experts.”
Given that Gove is likely to land a big job in the next government, this claim is troubling. He was not saying “expert opinion is worthless”. But he was giving voters permission to dismiss it and trust their own instincts, in cynical pursuit of his own goals. If he is prepared to use this tawdry tactic in the most important UK vote in living memory, there are serious questions about how he will conduct himself in high office.
Similar questions also have to be asked about Boris Johnson, who refused to correct a false claim on the side of his campaign bus, even after being rebuked by the UK Statistics Authority. Gove and Johnson probably don’t care; winning was all. But the fantasy world they seem intent on conjuring up is genuinely dangerous. Reality has a nasty habit of biting back. Yes, experts can get it wrong. Economists in particular have a poor track record. But that is not a credible or rational reason for rubbishing all expertise.Scientists and other experts are right to be dismayed. It must be tempting to walk away and laugh hollowly as reality takes its course. But that would be a mistake. Click here to read more
Tactics & Communications of Climate change & Expert deniers and the Leave campaign
‘…….This disdain for expert organisations and individuals that undermined their flawed arguments is a key characteristic of those who deny the potential consequences of both Brexit and climate change. It means that scientists who warn of the risks of climate change and economists who warn of the risks of Brexit are simply dismissed as “alarmists”.
So if the Vote Leave campaign prevails on 23 June, it may not only be the end of the UK’s membership of the European Union. It may also mark the end of enlightened decision-making, based on expertise and evidence. Click here to read the article. Bob Ward is policy and communications director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
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