News & Views: Vaccines and Science Denialism
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Vaccine Update for Healthcare ProvidersPublished on
Vaccine Update for Healthcare ProvidersPhilip Schmid and Cornelia Betsch recently published an important article in Nature Human Behaviour (https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-019-0632-4). Titled “Effective strategies for rebutting science denialism in public discussion,” the authors reported their findings related to “debating” science deniers. The majority of their experiments used vaccines as the topic; however, they also included a similarly designed experiment related to climate change to assess whether their findings were replicated using a different topic.
In a “radio show” format, participants heard or read science deniers speak against vaccines or climate change. They were presented with follow-up arguments by science advocates designed to determine the most effective means of countering the misinformation presented by the denialists. Randomized groups heard the following science advocate responses:
The study had some interesting, and generally applicable, findings worth considering.
Not surprising, science denialist messaging related to vaccines negatively affected both the attitudes and intentions of listeners. The negative effects were strongest in the group that did not hear any counter arguments, highlighting the importance of responding to negative messages. Interestingly, in the climate change experiment, the same effect was observed related to attitudes, but not intent.
The effects of the denialist’s messaging were lessened whether the science advocate addressed the topical misinformation or the rhetorical techniques used by the denialist. This is important when an advocate may not feel confident effectively arguing the facts because they can, instead, point out a denialist’s use of cherry-picked data or logical fallacies. The authors mentioned that a limited number of techniques tend to be utilized across the array of science-based areas in which denialists have sown seeds of doubt. To that end, science advocates who are able to “pull back the curtain” on these practices can effectively diminish their impact. The categories of techniques, described by Diethelm and McKee, include the following:
Using both techniques did not improve the effectiveness of the messages presented by science advocates. Neither did the data suggest a “backfire effect” caused by addressing the misinformation.
The researchers explored how participants’ confidence in vaccination and their political viewpoints (conservative versus liberal) affected their response to denialist messaging. Those with low confidence in vaccination and those with a conservative viewpoint were more likely to be influenced by the inaccurate information; however, they were also more susceptible to having the effects on intent moderated by either topical or technique-based advocacy messaging. Reversing the effects of attitude changes were demonstrated as well, but they did not differ based on confidence or political viewpoint.
Based on these findings, the authors concluded that it is important to respond to denialists’ claims, but emphasized that advocates can effectively respond either to the content or to the technique used to make the claim. However, they also pointed out that while not responding would offer the worst outcome, in the context of something like a public debate, if the expert’s refusal to participate would result in the event being cancelled, that would be the most effective outcome since the audience would not suffer the negative effects of the misinformation at all. Finally, the authors spoke to the importance of helping audiences gain the skills necessary to detect misinformation proactively, citing studies in school children.
While most providers do not find themselves responding to vaccine hesitancy in public forums, such as radio shows or debates, this study offers some insights that may be applicable outside of these types of situations:
Some VEC resources may be helpful for addressing rhetorical techniques:
Contributed by: Paul A. Offit, MD, Charlotte A. Moser, MS
Categories: Vaccine Update July 2019, News and Views About Vaccines
Materials in this section are updated as new information and vaccines become available. The Vaccine Education Center staff regularly reviews materials for accuracy.
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