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Constructive Conflict Guide > Civic Knowledge and Skills That We Can Use to Help Ourselves and Our Society More Constructively Handle Intractable Conflict > Stripping Away "Overlay" Problems That Make Conflicts Appear More Intractable Than They Really Are > Resolving Fact-Based Sources of Conflict
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BI Article
Communicating Facts
Simply having access to trustworthy, credible information is not enough. It is also necessary to present the information in a way that decision makers and the general public can understand. This essay illustrates how to do that.
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Factual Disputes
Disputes over facts have always been present in technical and environmental conflicts. But the ease in creating "fake facts" has made these kinds of disputes much more common, and difficult to resolve, and it can be very hard for lay people to figure out which "experts" are speaking the truth, and which are not.
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Resolving Fact-Based Sources of Conflict
Conflicts are often dramatically intensified by contradictory images of key objectively determinable facts. Limiting these disagreements with fact-finding efforts that are broadly seen as trustworthy can do much to defuse the overall conflict.
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Distinguish Factual vs Value Differences
Empirical facts about "what is" are very different from moral or value distinctions about what "should be." Clearly distinguishing between those two is essential for good decision making.
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Limit the Influence of "Fake Facts"
"Disinformation" or "fake facts" are everywhere. They are so ubiquitous, that it is almost impossible to figure out what is true, and what is not. But truth matters. Yet facts will come back to bite us if we get it wrong. So making the effort to sort through fake from real facts is essential to good decision making.
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Issue Analysts
We depend upon issue analysts to help us navigate complexities of modern society in ways that identify workable options for addressing problems and reliably assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each option.
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Technical Experts
Technical Experts investigate the extraordinarily complex challenges facing modern society -- things like climate change, inflationary pressures, or infectious diseases that can be very hard for the general public to see or understand. They help develop solutions to these problems, help non-experts judge the relative risks of different choices, and evaluate the likely results of different policy options.
News and Opinion
The Facts Just Aren't Getting Through
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Explaining science to non-experts
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9 Tips For Communicating Science To People Who Are Not Scientists
News and Opinion
11 tips for communicating science to the public