Mercenary Science: A Field Guide to Recognizing Scientific Disinformation

The strategy of creating confusion and doubt about product safety, often called the "tobacco playbook" after the industry that used it so successfully, has become standard operating procedure among many corporations across a wide range of industries. The "tobacco playbook" has been widely applied, generally with great success--if "success" is measured by delaying action to protect the public. One of the playbook's chief strategies, paying public relations professionals and scientific experts to question evidence, is now marketed by "product defense" specialists and used widely by firms eager to avoid addressing the harms caused by their products. This product defense ploy is public relations disguised as science. The corporations market their studies as "sound science," but in reality, they merely sound "like" science. There is a need for a system that develops the relevant scientific evidence before people are harmed and lawsuits are launched. In the meantime, greater public awareness of product defense and its confusion and doubt tactics will make it more difficult for polluters and manufacturers of dangerous products to continue to harm the public's health. This article provides a field guide for teachers and students of science to the tricks used to manufacture and sell scientific disinformation.