WHAT: How to Talk to a Science Denier – Conversations with Flat Earthers, Climate Deniers, and Others Who Defy Reason It is sometimes claimed that trying to convince a science denier with facts will only backfire. The latest research, however, shows that this is mistaken and that there ARE effective techniques that can be used to keep someone from becoming a science denier and even help them to overturn mistaken beliefs once they are formed. The secret lies in recognizing that even empirical beliefs may be held for reasons that have nothing to do with evidence, such as personal values, trust, ideology, and group identity. The best way to convince someone in this case is not to insult them — or clobber them with evidence — but to engage in calm, respectful, patient conversation that simultaneously builds trust and encourages them to reflect not just on what they believe but the reasoning strategy that brought them to believe it.
WHO: Lee McIntyre is a Research Fellow at the Center for Philosophy and History of Science at Boston University. Formerly Executive Director of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University, he previously taught philosophy at Colgate University, Boston University, Simmons College, Tufts Experimental College and Harvard Extension School.
McIntyre’s popular essays have appeared in the New York Times, Washington Post, Boston Globe, Baltimore Sun, Nature, Newsweek, Scientific American, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and numerous other venues. He has appeared on CNN International on Amanpour and Company — and several other programs on PBS, NPR and the BBC — and has spoken at the United Nations, the Aspen Institute, and the Vatican.
