How to Beat Science and Influence People: Policy Makers and Propaganda in Epistemic Networks James Owen Weatherall, Cailin O’Connor Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science University of California, Irvine Justin P. Bruner School of Politics and...
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How to Beat Science and Influence People: Policy Makers and Propaganda in Epistemic Networks James Owen Weatherall, Cailin O’Connor Department of Logic and Philosophy of Science University of California, Irvine Justin P. Bruner School of Politics and International Relations arXiv:1801.01239v1 [cs.SI] 4 Jan 2018 Australian National University Abstract In their recent book Merchants of Doubt [New York:Bloomsbury 2010], Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway describe the “tobacco strategy”, which was used by the tobacco industry to influence policy makers regarding the health risks of tobacco products. The strategy involved two parts, consisting of (1) promoting and sharing independent research supporting the industry’s preferred position and (2) funding additional research, but selectively publishing the results. We introduce a model of the Tobacco Strategy, and use it to argue that both prongs of the strategy can be extremely effective—even when policy makers rationally update on all evidence av
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