How to Use Empathy to Descalate the Denial That Might Come With Ignorance?

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A lot of ignorance is really, as you said, about fear. And so maybe we would have better luck having an open discourse by being epathetic to the fears that are behind that and addressing those," he says. "Until you get behind those, then it could be just shadow box ing or useless confrontation"

Yes, there is an -ology for that. Dr. Robert Proctor is a Stanford professor of the History of Science and co-edited the book “Agnotology: The Making & Unmaking of Ignorance,” having coined the word 30 years ago. We chat about everything from the true evils of tobacco marketing, to the sugar lobby, to racial injustice, horse vision, the psychology of the Flat Earther movement, which countries have the highest rates of climate denial, empathy, how to navigate difficult conversations and why it's critical to dismantle the systems of willful ignorance, starting locally.

Dr. Robert Proctor’s book, Agnotology

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