The neutrality myth, solution aversion, and intellectual pluralism

We're more than brains in a jar? We need to stop pretending neutrality is a thing? Neat.

"It's when science implies societal action that people begin to try to reject the science in order to avoid the need for action."

It's called solution aversion (Buckiewicz, 2025, January 17).

One of the articles I read to wrap my noodle around this social aversion thing states "we should understand that certain problems have particular solutions that threaten some people and groups more than others" (). Basically, if something requires an action that threatens our core values we reject the scientific facts. In that example, whether or not an audience accepted climate science modeling depended on whether the proposed solution was in line with that audience's values. We are willing to take action when we believe in the actions. Green technology in the free market over carbon tax or other government interventions.

For my beloved eggheads, the original npj Climate Action article is here: https://rdcu.be/eMN7F. It's open access and licensed as CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0. It's part of a bigger conversation (obviously? is that obvious?); van Eck et al. (2024) are responding to Büntgen's (2024) assertion that climate science and activism need to be Very Separate Things.

van Eck et al. conclude

By framing research outcomes consonant with predefined shared democratic values, and listening to society’s concerns, expectations, and ideas, we believe climate scientists can engage in open and inclusive dialogues with society, with the explicit goal of inspiring action. It is essential that both science and society be involved in this process, as (re)defining the boundaries between acceptable and unacceptable influence of values in science and associated roles and responsibilities of science and scientists is inherently an ideological exercise. Perhaps the most important realization, however, is that resolution is not the goal. Dialogue should be ongoing and constantly evolving as we develop new knowledge, make new discoveries, confront new challenges, and address new social structures in our shared pursuit of a better world.

(2024, emphasis added)

The goal is intellectual pluralism that supports inclusive, ongoing dialogues with transparency around our values. Let's talk about it!


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