Smoke and Mirrors
‘Agnotology’, the art of spreading doubt (as pioneered by Big Tobacco), distorts the scepticism of research to obscure the truth. Areas of academic life have been tainted by the practice, but some scholars are fighting back by showing the public how to spot such sleight of hand, reports Matthew Reisz
Doubt is the lifeblood of the academy. Historians and political scientists try never to take on trust any public statement that cannot be independently verified. Scientists look for every possible alternative factor and explanation before claiming that there is a causal link between A and B. Philosophers have even been known not to take their own existence for granted. An attitude of radical scepticism is essential for most serious research.
Yet there is also a point at which such scepticism becomes pathological and irresponsible. Whole industries have an interest in casting doubt on the overwhelming evidence that smoking damages health, that nuclear energy imposes substantial risks, that climate change is taking place and that the pre-credit crunch banking system was a house of cards. Academics who cultivate the art of spreading doubt - what one scholar calls “agnotology” - are often de facto protecting corporate profits and discouraging governments and individuals from taking action. They also give authority to views that would be taken with a large pinch of salt if put forward by journalists, lawyers or public relations firms.
Many people writing about academic integrity focus on clear conflicts of interest that can lead to the distortion of research agendas and the risk of corruption.
In Inside Job: The Financiers Who Pulled Off the Heist of the Century (2012), a book based on his Academy Award-winning documentary of the same name, Charles Ferguson returns to the case of Frederic Mishkin, Alfred Lerner professor of banking and financial institutions at Columbia Business School, who was paid $120,000 (£77,000) by the Iceland Chamber of Commerce to co-author a 2006 report titled Financial Stability in Iceland. This not only painted a glowing picture of the country’s banks, but later turned up on Mishkin’s CV under the title Financial Instability in Iceland. Defending himself after the documentary was released, Mishkin said that his report had identified “several risks” to Iceland’s economy and he also dismissed the inaccuracy in his CV as a “typo” that he had corrected before the interview took place.
Ferguson also cites an example of an academic acting as an expert witness for Microsoft in an antitrust (anti-monopoly) trial where his testimony directly contradicted his own published research. Along with such striking individual cases, he points to the growing number of US university presidents serving on the boards of financial services companies. Ferguson fears that this leaves entire disciplines “severely distorted by the conflicts of interest now endemic to them”, with prudent young researchers shying away from questions such as “Why did deregulation and economic theory fail so spectacularly and completely?”