Convincing skeptics to change their thoughts or behaviors can be a difficult process.
CBC News discusses how skepticism is related to three major issues, despite evidence contradicting each view: vaccine hesitancy, climate change denial, and texting while driving.
Vaccine hesitancy is the resistance to obtain a vaccination even though there is no credible evidence supporting this avoidance. In 2019 the World Health Organization (WHO) named vaccine hesitancy as one of the top 10 threats to health in the world. There are multiple reasons for this behavior, but they seem to be an interplay between mistrust or skepticism about the medical system and safety of vaccines, complacency, and lack of confidence. A possible solution is for medical professionals to have a conversation with patients where vaccines are presented as the routine, sharing data, and discussing the impact vaccines have on individual health. This conversation can be difficult because getting a vaccine involves loss aversion since obtaining a vaccine will result in not getting sick or avoiding the disease.
Climate change denial and reluctance to make an impact on the global environmental crisis counters the many messages and evidence we’ve received about this issue. Over 11,000 scientists have signed a warning regarding climate change, but there is a large gap between what scientists say we must do and what people actually do. Most people have recognized the impact of climate change, but they feel helpless and alone, not knowing what to do. Solutions will require changes to infrastructure, and a focus on the environment as the default, easy option.
Texting while driving is illegal and often results in accidents. It is reported that more people die from distracted driving than impaired driving. This may be due to the fact that we don’t appreciate the risks since we have become so accustomed to driving that we underestimate its complexity. This leads us to believe that we can do other tasks, like texting, while driving. In addition, we don’t self-identify as someone who gets distracted or can’t drive while distracted so we don’t see a need to change our behavior. Possible solutions include speaking up when we see it happen, identifying texting while driving as being unsafe, and not getting distracted ourselves.