Evidence, rationality, and ignorance: Agnotological issues in COVID-19 science

Abstract

Two decades ago, Robert Proctor coined the term agnotology to refer to the study of ignorance that stems from scientific research. Amid the coronavirus disease pandemic, the world is witnessing the greatest natural experiment ever, and countries have adopted different response strategies. An evaluation of the effectiveness of different policies will play a valuable role in preparing for future public health emergencies. However, controversial issues such as the timing and pathways of viral emergence, the effectiveness of social distancing and lockdown strategies, and the use of antimalarial drugs as therapy have still not been fully resolved. This serves as a fertile breeding ground for agnotological strategies, whereby scientific studies are deliberately or unintentionally designed to create distractions or draw conclusions that are not supported by research findings. Researchers, public health authorities, and healthcare workers should be equipped to identify such agnotological strategies, distinguish them from scientific fraud, and avoid drawing misleading inferences based on an irrational adherence to hypotheses and a lack of criticism of implausible results.

COVID-19, social isolation, and psychological distress in a Brazilian sample.

“…Surprisingly, higher levels of positive reappraisal increased this effect, suggesting that, while these sources of information can lead to cognitively reframing COVID-19-related stressors as more positive, this in fact results in more distress. This can be related to the fact that much disinformation on COVID-19 also circulates on social networks and podcasts (Fortaleza, 2020) and that the tone of these sources can lead to distorted perceptions of risk (Sell et al, 2017; Thompson et al, 2017), producing conflicting cognitions.…”

COVID-19 Medical and Pharmacological Management in the European Countries Compared to Italy: An Overview

“…So far, no Consensus Panel, Pharmaceutical Committee or any widely agreed protocol has been attempted in Europe to successfully treat patients with COVID-19 at the occurrence of the earliest signs while they are still at home [ 12 ]. A huge component of empiricism is probably delaying this process [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 ].…”

Artistic research within a lab of possibilities: exploring post-digital ignorance in “a’21 amberNetworkFestival”

“…Furthermore, we found it necessary to explore "how, where, and why ignorance, once produced, becomes institutionalized" (Frickel 2014, 263). In fact, many scholars have focused on the social construction of ignorance and its instrumental value to the reproduction of power relations during COVID-19 (Al Dahdah, Falisse and Lurton 2021;Fortaleza 2020;Timmermann 2020;Paul and Haddad 2023). Self-organizing, self-reflexive, and self-aware commonings "explore, reuse, reveal, and subvert" these power relations and contribute to a process of alternative knowledge production (Yetiskin 2020, 225).…”