Key Insight
Kahan examines how conflict entrepreneurs and clueless communicators together create the noise that pollutes the science communication environment.
The Cultural Cognition Project's concept of the "polluted science communication environment" refers to conditions where diverse citizens cannot form beliefs consistent with the best available evidence because evidence has become entangled with cultural identity.
Conflict entrepreneurs are individuals or organizations that profit from keeping science issues culturally polarized. Their incentives are not aligned with accurate public understanding — they benefit from perpetuating confusion.
Conflict entrepreneurs deliberately amplify polarization for material gain. Clueless bumblers inadvertently contribute by communicating in ways that activate identity-protective responses — treating every climate communication as an opportunity to signal cultural allegiance.
Progress on science communication requires addressing both sources. Against conflict entrepreneurs, the primary tool is institutional — creating accountability structures that reduce the payoff from strategic confusion. Against clueless bumblers, the primary tool is education — developing empirically grounded principles of science communication.