In psychology of human behaviour denialism is a person’s choice to deny reality as a way to avoid psychologically uncomfortable truth. It is essentially an irrational action that withholds the validation of a historical event or experience when an individual refuses to accept an empirically verifiable reality. Denialist is a person who refuses to admit the truth of a concept or proposition that is supported by the majority of scientific or historical evidence. This has been there for more than a century. The effects of large-scale denialism collectively are anti-progress.
Michael Specter, a New Yorker correspondent, is very passionate about this. Nine years back he delivered a TED talk “The danger of science denial”. I was very much impressed by the talk and I wrote a Blog article on this talk in BOLOJI
He has also written a book on this topic. The title is DENIALISM – How Irrational Thinking Hinders Scientific Progress, Harms the Planet and Threatens Our Lives.
This is a collection six essays dealing in detail with the topics covered in the TED talk. This is a recommended reading.
Denialism is all round us. You can feel it among your family members, colleagues and friends. It is largely concerning food habits and health related issues.
I am proposing to go deeper into the patterns of denialism prevailing in India.
In the days to follow I propose to contribute a few more articles in these pages.
