Public Opinion Manipulation: Examples of Science Deniers Techniques

Science deniers often use the same techniques, be it climate change, vaccines, or any other science-related subjects. We believe that explaining the techniques of science denial will make people resistant to their effects.

Science denialism comes in many forms: climate change deniers, Anti-vaccines, people who believe COVID is a hoax, those who believe that evolution isn’t real, and on top of them all, those who believe that the Earth is flat!

Science denier usually cherry-picks data, believes in conspiracy theories, engages in illogical reasoning, relies on fake experts, and often denigrates real experts. They demand science to be perfect in order to be credible while they are many scientific facts to consider in the search for the truth.

For more than a decade, the Australian John Cook has been dealing with disinformation on climate change. In 2007, he founded the science platform SkepticalScience.com, which debunks popular denial myths. The following are definitions and examples of each denial technique according to him that if we understand we will avoid falling into the trap of science denialism in other subjects as well:

TECHNIQUE	DEFINITION	EXAMPLE
Ad Hominem	Attacking a person/group instead of addressing their arguments.	“Climate science can’t be trusted because climate scientists are biased.”
Ambiguity	Using ambiguous language in order to lead to a misleading conclusion.	“Thermometer readings have uncertainty which means we don’t know whether global warming is happening.”
Anecdote	Using personal experience or isolated examples instead of sound arguments or compelling evidence.	“The weather is cold today—whatever happened to global warming?”
Blowfish	Focusing on an inconsequential aspect of scientific research, blowing it out of proportion in order to distract from or cast doubt on the main conclusions of the research.	“The hockey stick graph is invalid because it contains statistical errors.”
Bulk Fake Experts	Citing large numbers of seeming experts to argue that there is no scientific consensus on a topic.	“There is no expert consensus because 31,487 Americans with a science degree signed a petition saying humans aren’t disrupting climate.”
Cherry Picking	Carefully selecting data that appear to confirm one position while ignoring other data that contradicts that position.	“Global warming stopped in 1998.”
Contradictory	Simultaneously believing in ideas that are mutually contradictory.	“The temperature record is fabricated by scientists… the temperature record shows cooling.”
Conspiracy Theory	Proposing that a secret plan exists to implement a nefarious scheme such as hiding a truth.	“The climategate emails prove that climate scientists have engaged in a conspiracy to deceive the public.”
Fake Debate	Presenting science and pseudoscience in an adversarial format to give the false impression of an ongoing scientific debate.	“Climate deniers should get equal coverage with climate scientists, providing a more balanced presentation of views.”
Fake Experts	Presenting an unqualified person or institution as a source of credible information.	“A retired physicist argues against the climate consensus, claiming the current weather change is just a natural occurrence.”
False Analogy	Assuming that because two things are alike in some ways, they are alike in some other respect.	“Climate skeptics are like Galileo who overturned the scientific consensus about geocentrism.”
False Choice	Presenting two options as the only possibilities, when other possibilities exist.	“CO2 lags temperature in the ice core record, proving that temperature drives CO2, not the other way around.”
Immune to evidence	Re-interpreting any evidence that counters a conspiracy theory as originating from the conspiracy.	“Those investigations finding climate scientists aren’t conspiring were part of the conspiracy.”
Impossible Expectations	Demanding unrealistic standards of certainty before acting on the science.	“Scientists can’t even predict the weather next week. How can they predict the climate in 100 years?”
Logical Fallacies	Arguments where the conclusion doesn’t logically follow from the premises. Also known as a non sequitur.	“Climate has changed naturally in the past so what’s happening now must be natural.”
Magnified Minority	Magnifying the significance of a handful of dissenting scientists to cast doubt on an overwhelming scientific consensus.	“Sure, there’s 97% consensus but Professor Smith disagrees with the consensus position.”
Misrepresentation	Misrepresenting a situation or an opponent’s position in such a way as to distort understanding.	“They changed the name from ‘global warming’ to ‘climate change’ because global warming stopped happening.”
Moving Goalposts	Demanding higher levels of evidence after receiving requested evidence.	“Sea levels may be rising but they’re not accelerating.”
Nefarious intent	Assuming that the motivations behind any presumed conspiracy are nefarious.	“Climate scientists promote the climate hoax because they’re in it for the money.”
Overriding suspicion	Having a nihilistic degree of skepticism towards the official account, preventing belief in anything that doesn’t fit into the conspiracy theory.	“Show me one line of evidence for climate change… oh, that evidence is faked!”
Oversimplification	Simplifying a situation in such a way as to distort understanding, leading to erroneous conclusions.	“CO2 is plant food so burning fossil fuels will be good for plants.”
Persecuted victim	Perceiving and presenting themselves as the victim of organized persecution.	“Climate scientists are trying to take away our freedom.”
Quote Mining	Taking a person’s words out-of-context in order to misrepresent their position.	“Mike’s trick… to hide the decline.”
Re-interpreting randomness	Believing that nothing occurs by accident, so that random events are re-interpreted as being caused by the conspiracy.	“NASA’s satellite exploded? They must be trying to hide inconvenient data!”
Red Herring	Deliberately diverting attention to an irrelevant point to distract from a more important point.	“CO2 is a trace gas so it’s warming effect is minimal.”
Single Cause	Assuming a single cause or reason when there might be multiple causes or reasons.	“Climate has changed naturally in the past so what’s happening now must be natural.”
Slippery Slope	Suggesting that taking a minor action will inevitably lead to major consequences.	“If we implement even a modest climate policy, it will start us down the slippery slope to socialism and taking away our freedom.”
Slothful Induction	Ignoring relevant evidence when coming to a conclusion.	“There is no empirical evidence that humans are causing global warming.”
Something must be wrong	Maintaining that “something must be wrong” and the official account is based on deception, even when specific parts of a conspiracy theory become untenable.	“Ok, fine, 97% of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming, but that’s just because they’re toeing the party line.”
Straw Man	Misrepresenting or exaggerating an opponent’s position to make it easier to attack.	“In the 1970s, climate scientists were predicting an ice age.”

Source: Skepticalscience

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