Coming in Fall 2021:
Lee’s new book How to Talk to a Science Denier (MIT Press)

For a number of years it’s been fairly clear—at least in the USA—that science is under assault. Flat Earth, climate denial, anti-vaxx, coronavirus…sometimes it’s easy to feel hopeless that we can change anyone’s mind with facts. New research, however, suggests that it is possible to change deniers’ beliefs and that you don’t have to be a scientist to do it. In How to Talk to a Science Denier, I tell the story of my own adventures in talking face to face with science deniers and their victims—including a Flat Earth convention in Denver, coal miners in rural Pennsylvania, and fishermen in the Maldives—and what I learned from the experience. Bottom line: people’s beliefs are based not just on evidence but identity, so it’s crucial to approach them with as much empathy and respect as possible. What changes minds is trust, not argument.