A model of faulty and faultless disagreement for post-hoc assessments of knowledge utilization in evidence-based policymaking
When evidence-based policymaking is so often mired in disagreement and controversy, how can we know if the process is meeting its stated goals? We develop a novel mathematical model to study disagreements about adequate knowledge utilization, like those regarding wild horse culling, shark drumlines and facemask policies during pandemics. We find that, when stakeholders disagree, it is frequently impossible to tell whether any party is at fault. We demonstrate the need for a distinctive kind of transparency in evidence-based policymaking, which we call transparency of reasoning. Such transparency is critical to the success of the evidence-based policy movement, as without it, we will be unable to tell whether in any instance a policy was in fact based on evidence.
Authors
- Hannah Rubin (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0270-9182)
- Chad L. Hewitt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6859-6512)
- Katie Woolaston (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7652-9347)
- Remco Heesen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3823-944X)
- Emelda E. Chukwu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3110-1678)
- Anne Schwenkenbecher (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2207-3043)
- Evangelina Schwindt (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6693-9828)
- Veli Mitova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4181-8170)
- Mike D. Schneider (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3303-3664)
- Alejandro Bortolus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3035-315X)
- Temitope O. Sogbanmu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8913-267X)
- Ricardo Kaufer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7641-2456)
- Helena Slanickova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0003-5557-9654)
Institutions
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (AR)
- Queensland University of Technology (AU)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Murdoch University (AU)
- Lincoln University (NZ)
- University of Lagos (NG)
- Bielefeld University (DE)
- University of Johannesburg (ZA)
- ARL – Academy for Territorial Development in the Leibniz Association (DE)
- Centro Científico Tecnológico Patagónico (AR)
- Instituto de Biología Subtropical (AR)
- Nigerian Institute of Medical Research (NG)
- University of Missouri (US)
- London School of Economics and Political Science (GB)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Scientific Reports
- Published
- 2024-08-09
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-024-69012-3
- Citations
- 2
- Primary Topic
- Evaluation and Performance Assessment
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 0.98
Funders
- National Science Foundation
- Volkswagen Foundation
- Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas
- Nederlandse Organisatie voor Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek
- Universität Bielefeld
- Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences
- Zentrum für interdisziplinäre Forschung, Universität Bielefeld