This is a common theme on this blog. Maybe it’s the only theme, in fact.
Risk perceptions that display the pathology of identity-protective cognition are pathological, both in being rare and in being inimical to public welfare.
We need to get that.
We need to to learn how to distinguish risk perceptions that evince this pathology from ones that don’t.
We need to use evidence-based methods to identify the dynamics that cause some risk issues, none of which is bound to become this way, to take on the characteristics of this pathology.
And we need to recognize our responsibility to use the knowlege we have of these dynamics to minimize the risk that any particular form of science will become infected with the pathology’s reason-effacing characteristics.
Because if we don’t do all these things, then we will experience many many avoidable instances of this pathology. And for that, we’ll have only ourselves to blame.