Academics should harness a “bullshit index” to call out questionable research that underpins policy interventions, an Australian educational scholar has suggested.
Adelaide University professor Pat Thomson has proposed a five-tier “policy bullshit index” – from level zero (no bullshit) to level four (extreme bullshit) – for appraising documents that mimic the “conventions” of evidence-based research “while failing to meet evidence standards”.
Writing in the Journal of Education Policy, Thomson said thinktank reports, advocacy briefs and government proposals routinely included claims that their evidence did not support. But rebuttal mechanisms were too technical, nuanced or drawn-out to garner attention in an age of soundbite journalism and populist politics.
“The incentive structure of the policy ecosystem rewards bullshit,” Thomson writes. “If we critical policy scholars are to…speak up for the public good, then we may need to become somewhat less polite.”
The idea evolved from Thomson’s “ongoing frustration” at how governments and lobbyists used “not very well-conducted research” to their advantage. “It’s almost impossible to do a piece of research that doesn’t have…some kind of limitation,” she told Times Higher Education.
