Concerns about people's resistance to facts and knowledge are becoming increasingly serious. This book draws on the social, economic and evolutionary sciences to provide an integrated understanding of the phenomenon.

'At all levels of society, our world is becoming increasingly dominated by an inability, even refusal, to engage with others' ideas. It does not bode well either for democracy or for science. Klintman's book offers just the kind of in-depth exploration of the issues that surround this disturbing phenomenon that is desperately needed.'
R.I.M. Dunbar, Professor of Evolutionary Psychology, Oxford University, and author of Grooming, Gossip and the Evolution of Language


‘Klintman provides a thoughtful, wide-ranging, and imaginative analysis of the interwoven factors that obstruct the transmission of accurate information. He shows how such practices as avoidance, blocking, and conscious rejection of arguments and factual evidence can serve both harmful and protective roles, and helpfully evaluates strategies for individuals and groups to cut back on damaging types of knowledge resistance.'
Sissela Bok, Professor of Philosophy, Harvard School of Public Health, and winner of the Orwell award for Lying: Moral Choice in Public and Private Life


Why do people and groups ignore, deny, and resist knowledge about society’s many problems?

In a world of ‘alternative facts’ and ‘fake news’, which some believe could be remedied by ‘factfulness’, the question has never been more pressing. After years of ideologically polarised debates on this topic, this book seeks to further advance our understanding of the phenomenon of knowledge resistance by integrating insights from the social, economic and evolutionary sciences.

Exploring controversies about nature–nurture, climate change, gender roles, vaccination, genetically modified food and artificial intelligence, this book identifies simplistic views in public and scholarly debates about what facts, knowledge and human motivations are and what ‘rational’ use of information actually means. Drawing on cutting-edge scholarship as well as personal experiences of culture clashes, Knowledge resistance is essential reading for anyone interested in the urgent social problems we face today.

Why do people and groups ignore, deny and resist knowledge about society’s many problems? In a world of ‘alternative facts’, ‘fake news’ that some believe could be remedied by ‘factfulness’, the question has never been more pressing. After years of ideologically polarised debates on the topic, this book seeks to further advance our understanding of the phenomenon of knowledge resistance by integrating insights from the social, economic and evolutionary sciences. It identifies simplistic views in public and scholarly debates about what facts, knowledge and human motivations are and what ‘rational’ use of information actually means. The examples used include controversies about nature-nurture, climate change, gender roles, vaccination, genetically modified food and artificial intelligence. Drawing on cutting-edge scholarship and personal experiences of culture clashes, the book is aimed at the general, educated public as well as students and scholars interested in the interface of human motivation and the urgent social problems of today.