John Cook

Just published a new paper in Environmental Communication with interdisciplinary team where we identified the logical fallacies in a comprehensive taxonomy of climate myths. Paper (paywalled) is at www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10...., free pre-press manuscript is at sks.to/deconstructc...

Logic-checking segues seamlessly into logic-based corrections that explain misleading techniques in misinformation. In 2017, I published research finding that logic-based corrections neutralise climate misinformation across the political spectrum: it's depolarizing sks.to/inoculation

So logic-checking is beneficial both epistemologically (help identify misleading content that fact-checking struggles with) & with communication (neutralising polarizing misinformation). My hope is this research will spark both research & practical interest in logic-checking sks.to/deconstructc...

sks.tosks.to

We also identified the most common fallacies in climate misinformation. Slothful induction and cherry picking were the most common, followed by oversimplification and misrepresentation. Single cause (a form of oversimplification) was fifth.

One of the most significant findings was that 91% of the claims we analysed contained hidden premises with fallacies. Almost all of misinformation tries to hide how they mislead. This underscores the importance of logic-checking as an essential tool in countering misinformation.

We also did some conceptual work clarifying the differences between some fallacies that seemed difficult to distinguish. E.g., cherry picking from slothful induction, and misrepresentation from oversimplification. Wendy Cook created this lovely infographic for the paper.

The result was a detailed summary of climate myths, how we deconstructed them, the hidden premises in each myth, and the logical fallacies in each myth - this table is intended as a resource for anyone wishing to write debunkings of climate myths that use the fact-myth-fallacy format.

In 2018, I worked with critical thinking philosophers to develop a step-by-step methodology for logic-checking. It involves deconstructing claims into an argument structure (premises & a conclusion), check for hidden premises, then examine each premise for logical fallacies sks.to/criticalclim...

For this new paper, we expanded the 2018 flowchart to make it more practical, working with a variety of real-world misinformation. Note: this work was initially done as an Honours project by Ruby Flack, then expanded into a full paper with the larger team of coauthors.

We make the argument that there are limits to fact-checking which find policy claims, conspiracy theories, & ad hominem attacks challenging to fact-check. In particular, fact-checking struggles with arguments that contain hidden premises or unstated assumptions (which are common in misinformation).

We propose a complement (not a replacement) to fact-checking: logic-checking, or identifying the presence of logical fallacies. This is another way of tagging arguments as misleading and can address forms of misinformation that fact-checking struggle with (there's another benefit I'll come to later)

We started with the taxonomy of contrarian claims about climate change from our 2021 paper (sks.to/cardspaper). In our 2021 paper, we didn't make any judgements about whether the claims were misleading or not - that's what this new research set out to do.

John Cook reposted

Stephan Lewandowsky

@lewan.uk

23 Apr

It has been nearly a year since we released our Anti-Autocracy Handbook sks.to/autocracy. Our team of authors includes @karmaos.bsky.social @drsunitasah Prof Christina Pagel Renee DiResta Philipp Markolin John Cook 1/5

@skepticalscience.bsky.social

12 Apr

Watched movie Einstein & Eddington today. Eddington (David Tennant) empirically confirms theory of general relativity by Einstein (Andy Serkis). At end, Eddington gives speech about time being relative. Wife comments to me "he's right, for you the movie was 5 minutes long, for me it was 5 hours."

John Cook reposted

Skeptical Science

gc.copernicus.orggc.copernicus.org

Replying to @skepticalscience.bsky.social

It was a big team effort to get the "SkS Experiment" set up, run it and then turn it into published research! @johnfocook.bsky.social, @baerbelw.bsky.social, @collinmaessen.bsky.social, Timo Lubitz, Doug Bostrom & @dananuccitelli.bsky.social Here is the link again: gc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1...

gc.copernicus.orgQuantifying the impact of Skeptical Science rebuttals in reducing climate misperceptionsAbstract. Misinformation about climate change leads to societal damage in a number of ways and consequently, resources are required to support interventions that counter their influence. Aiming to mee...

We just published a paper in Geoscience Communication where we measure the impact of reading climate myth rebuttals at bsky.app/profile/skep... - technically challenging research with some nuanced, complex results gc.copernicus.org/articles/9/1...

We're looking to address these issues in a major update of the Skeptical Science website later this year. One major innovation is incorporating fallacy explanations in our rebuttals, building that into the database format. A much needed revamp given the website design hasn't been updated since 2007!

We're now crowd-funding the journal fee for our research paper (€1,215) in the same way we crowd-funded our 97% consensus paper back in 2013. More details on how to donate at skepticalscience.com/published-re...

However, we were disturbed to see belief in climate facts go down for some participants as well, not something we wanted to see. We looked at the worst performing rebuttals and identified some places where they could have been written better.

For example, the facts could have been explained clearer & simpler (following the old mantra: fight sticky myths with stickier facts). Also, few of the rebuttals explained the logical fallacies committed by the myth - a debunking approach recommended by the Debunking Handbook sks.to/db2020

6261 people filled out both the pre-rebuttal and post-rebuttal form from Nov 2021 to Jul 2025. The first thing that jumped out at us was that nearly half of visitors strongly agreed with the fact or strongly disagreed with the myth. We think most SkS visitors come to arm themselves with info.

The strongest result from our data was that the website had its biggest effect in improving climate perceptions among climate dismissives (strongly disagreed with climate facts/strongly agreed with climate myths). Belief in climate myths overall went down.

The first challenge was collecting live data. Readers who came directly to a Skeptical Science rebuttal via google were asked how much they agreed with either a climate fact or myth. Then if they read all the way down to the end of the rebuttal, they received the same survey.

youtu.beMeanwhile... Middle Earth Weather Report | Clooney's Near-Beer | Why Cats Land On Their FeetYouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

23 Mar

Uber-Tolkien nerd @colbertlateshow.bsky.social (which I've always admired him for) disses us for taking Lord of the Rings too seriously. Fair comment but we regret nothing! youtu.be/MMueOnpeAVA?...

joy.org.auSat, 21st March, 2026: John Cook, Snr Research Fellow, School of Psychological Sciences, MelbUni; Do Middle‑earth and Westeros Make Sense?John Cook, Snr Research Fellow, School of Psychological Sciences, MelbUni; Do Middle‑earth and Westeros Make Sense?

23 Mar

Had a chaotic & fun conversation with Joy Radio about our paper on building climate models of fantasy worlds. I accidentally insulted John Saffron for only reading The Hobbit but otherwise, think it went ok :-| joy.org.au/saturdaymaga...

theconversation.comDo Middle-earth and Westeros make sense? Climate scientists modelled them to find outIt’s a seemingly whimsical exercise, but it serves serious purposes.

Just published an article about our paper in @fafnirjournal.bsky.social describing how climate models were used to simulate fantasy worlds like Middle-earth & Westeros as well as for a new world I've developed for a cli-fi fantasy story theconversation.com/do-middle-ea...

In fact, I was inspired by Tolkien's writing approach. He created detailed tables for each character in Lord of the Rings, detailed where they were on each day of the story, describing environmental details like moon phases and wind direction.

Taking a similar approach, I created a spreadsheet of the characters' journey. I also added climate data along the way - temperature, precipitation, biome, season (arcing into winter as the story gets dire, trending to spring at the end). Then used that to add immersive details to the story.

theconversation.comDo Middle-earth and Westeros make sense? Climate scientists modelled them to find outIt’s a seemingly whimsical exercise, but it serves serious purposes.

I was especially drawn to the simulation of biomes - which parts of the world are forest, grasslands, desert, etc. The biome maps became my guide in designing a map for the fantasy world (called Terrios).

Why go to all this trouble? First, because it's fun & I'm an uber-nerd. But more importantly, verisimilitude & immersion are crucial to compelling stories (particularly fantasy). Tolkien himself was meticulous in crafting a detailed, intricate world which has captivated millions of readers.

theconversation.comDo Middle-earth and Westeros make sense? Climate scientists modelled them to find outIt’s a seemingly whimsical exercise, but it serves serious purposes.

Bristol climate scientist Alex Farnsworth took it on. He had a small request - provide a digital elevation map of the entire planet providing the elevation of every point of land (including ocean ocean). Easy! So I gave them this (well, I had to write R code to convert the PNG into a CSV)

Months passed, then Alex came back with the results of the climate model simulation - temperature, precipitation, wind strength & direction, humidity, sea ice, the weather patterns of the entire world all year around. Next level world-building!

theconversation.comDo Middle-earth and Westeros make sense? Climate scientists modelled them to find outIt’s a seemingly whimsical exercise, but it serves serious purposes.

youtu.beUQx DENIAL101x The Climate of Middle Earth - Part 1YouTube video by UQx Denial101x Making Sense of Climate Science Denial

This began years ago when I interviewed Dan Lunt from the University of Bristol about his climate model of Middle-earth (from Lord of the Rings). I released the interview as a trilogy of videos because, of course a trilogy! youtu.be/jJNkd5g6oxI?...

Since then Dan Lunt also collaborated with his Bristol colleagues to climate model the worlds of Westeros (Game of Thrones), Arrakis (Dune), and the world of the Wheel of Time. So when I began work on a climate fiction set in a fantasy world, I reached out to them asking if they'd model my world.

thegreatsimplification.comWhy Science Communication Fails: How to Break Down Misleading Arguments and Inoculate Against Misinformation - The Great SimplificationIn this episode, Nate is joined by John Cook, a researcher who has spent nearly two decades studying science communication and the psychology of misinformation.

3 Mar

Had a great, in-depth conversation with @tgspodcast.bsky.social about climate misinformation (with an interesting digression at the end into my latest climate communication obsession: climate fiction). www.thegreatsimplification.com/episode/212-...

John Cook reposted

Dan Lunt

@climatesamwell.bsky.social

26 Feb

Recently published in Fafnir - the Nordic Journal of Science Fiction and Fantasy: "Climate Models as a Retroactive and Exploratory World-building Tool" fafnir.journal.fi/article/view... Thanks to @johnfocook.bsky.social @climatedann.bsky.social and Alex and Michael Farnsworth.

q.surveys.unimelb.edu.auQualtrics Survey | Qualtrics Experience ManagementThe most powerful, simple and trusted way to gather experience data. Start your journey to experience management and try a free account today.

10 Dec 2025

Want to test how good you are at recognising authors? Fill out this (anonymous) survey, checking authors you recognise but also avoiding checking fake authors (purpose is to measure which authors are too well known or not known at all) q.surveys.unimelb.edu.au/jfe/form/SV_...

John Cook reposted

Dana Nuccitelli

@dananuccitelli.bsky.social

7 Nov 2025

Replying to @dananuccitelli.bsky.social

I talked to @johnfocook.bsky.social about dealing with climate misinformation, and he recommended learning about the common techniques that bad actors use to distort facts: Fake experts Logical fallacies Impossible expectations Cherry-picking Conspiracy theories or FLICC, for short (4/11)

skepticalscience.comA history of FLICC: the 5 techniques of science denialIn 2007, Mark Hoofnagle suggested on his Science Blog Denialism that denialists across a range of topics such as climate change, evolution, & HIV/AIDS all employed the same rhetorical tactics to sow c...

John Cook reposted

Dana Nuccitelli

@dananuccitelli.bsky.social

7 Nov 2025

Joe Rogan has one of the world's most popular podcasts. Unfortunately, like nearly all of the most popular online shows, his tends to spread climate misinformation. For @climateconnections.bsky.social I scrutinize his recent episode with octogenarian climate contrarians Lindzen & Happer 🧵 (1/11)

yaleclimateconnections.orgFive ways Joe Rogan misleads listeners about climate change » Yale Climate ConnectionsRogan exposes millions to climate denial. Let’s break down his tactics.

John Cook reposted

Ullrich Ecker

@ulliecker.bsky.social

31 Oct 2025

Happy to share a new paper (accepted at J Environ Psych), led by the amazing @emilyspearing.bsky.social Black Summer Arson: Examining the Impact of Climate Misinformation and Corrections on Reasoning osf.io/preprints/ps... @johnfocook.bsky.social @lewan.bsky.social @profsanderlinden.bsky.social

osf.ioOSF

cssn.orgGlobal Assessment - Brown Climate Social Science NetworkClimate advocacy has not failed, climate policy has been sabotaged, explains a new open access book, Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment.

14 Oct 2025

Proud to have contributed to the blockbuster new volume Climate Obstruction: A Global Assessment, documenting the many, many ways that corporations & orgs try to block climate action. Comprehensive, global in scope, authors from all over the world & the ebook version is FREE cssn.org/news-researc...

14 Oct 2025

Fun random statistic - our 2013 paper finding 97% scientific consensus on human-caused global warming just went past 1.5 million downloads (which is not a bad number for an academic paper) iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1...

theguardian.comMedia and political attacks on Australia’s emissions targets ‘straight out of the climate obstruction playbook’, expert saysProf Christian Downie points to the Business Council of Australia and News Corp newspapers as examples of deliberate obstruction

8 Oct 2025

Excited to lead a University of Melbourne submission to the Senate inquiry on climate misinformation and also speak to @readfearn.bsky.social at @australia.theguardian.com about the trends in climate misinformation & how to counter it www.theguardian.com/australia-ne...

aph.gov.auSubmissionsSubmissions

8 Oct 2025

BTW, you can read the 200+ submissions (such a wealth of useful information not to mention some submissions packed with misinformation) at www.aph.gov.au/Parliamentar.... The Uni of Melb submission is #128 (to get clickbaity, you'll never guess who #125 is! ;-)

John Cook reposted

Climate Social Science Network

@cssn.org

22 Sept 2025

Experts @timmonsroberts.bsky.social @aronczyk.bsky.social and @johnfocook.bsky.social speak with @trackchangesmedia.bsky.social on the rising threat of climate disinformation in the media, solutions misinformation, and the attack on climate science and scientists themselves.

@amywestervelt.bsky.social

17 Sept 2025

The Debunking Handbook 2020 has now been translated into Basque, making it the 21st translation of this influential guide to the psychological research into debunking misinformation. Many thanks to translator Laida Arbizu Aguirre and Wendy Cook for typesetting sks.to/db2020

John Cook reposted

Amy Westervelt

16 Sept 2025

If you're a @drilledmedia.bsky.social listener you know I think social scientists are key sources if we want to understand why governments haven't acted on climate. So imagine my nerd delight to get my hands on an incredible new batch of research on climate obstruction. drilled.media/podcasts/dri...

drilled.mediaWelcome to the World of ObstructionInvestigating the obstacles to action on climate change.

John Cook reposted

Andrew Dessler

@andrewdessler.com

2 Sept 2025

Our 400+ page comment on the DOE climate working group report is now out. Our conclusion: The merchants of doubt are back, and they're coming for climate science.

sites.google.comDOEresponseSiteOn July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a report from its Climate Working Group (CWG). This report features prominently in the EPA's reconsideration of its 2009 Endangerment Finding. In response, over 85 scientists have come together to write a comprehensive review, which is