Baroness Susan Greenfield has a new book out, which means that she’s back on the media circuit to promote her controversial ideas about how technology affects our brains. In her latest foray on Thursday she gave a lecture at the RSA in London on “Mind Change’, an event mired in controversy before a single word was uttered.
In the lead-up, the author of Bad Science, Ben Goldacre, claimed that he was originally approached to chair the discussion but the Baroness objected to his taking this role, at which point the RSA (rather ironically) changed its mind and retracted its invitation to him.
We contacted Greenfield to verify this claim and she responded through the RSA’s director of external affairs, Nina Bolognesi. Bolognesi stated that “Dr Goldacre was invited by the RSA to chair an event with Professor Greenfield. However, Professor Greenfield’s preference was to have a balanced debate with Dr Goldacre, on a subject where the title was mutually agreed, with Chair holding a neutral view. On Sept 2nd Dr Goldacre declined this offer as he felt he was not an expert on the topic being presented by Professor Greenfield.”
It’s frustrating that the RSA was not more assertive in its original suggestion for the event – it would have been refreshing for the charity to host a more honest, critical debate, and Goldacre would have made an excellent chair.
Aside from this though, the RSA event was disappointing for other reasons. You can watch a recording of it here, and it’s worth noting that the chair appears to make an effort not to solicit any questions about Greenfield’s position as a controversial public figure. At the outset, Greenfield asks the audience not to use Twitter during her talk – thus attempting to shut down free debate of her ideas, and attempting to impose a didactic, one-way flow of information. If anyone were in any doubt that the Deficit Model is still alive and kicking, then this serves as a reminder that there is much work to be done.
What we’re starting to see in some of the interviews with Greenfield is a gradual amplification of criticisms she has faced over the last few years. The most prominent criticisms were posed by Goldacre in 2011, when he asked why the Baroness refuses to publish her claims within a scientific journal, where they can go through the usual process of scientific scrutiny and peer review. Her response to this has been varied. On the BBC last year, she retorted with “How can I publish just one paper?”. In other interviews, she argues that it shouldn’t matter who publishes on the matter – in her own words “It doesn’t make it more or less valid if I’ve done it or if someone else has.”
No one has ever reasonably asked any scientist to produce a single study to substantiate any one claim. That’s simply not how science works and Greenfield can’t possibly be so naïve as to believe otherwise. But her responses cast an either-or mindset; either you can produce one study, or nothing at all. This is a bizarre standpoint because there is a wealth of studies that could be run – and are being run – to look at all sorts of aspects of technology use, and we’ve discussed some of them here before. Only by running relevant studies can we move beyond the same old surface-level debates about simplistic concepts (like screen time) that don’t have much bearing on the real world.
Most critics of Greenfield don’t take issue with her voicing an opinion. It’s perfectly acceptable to have a view on a subject without having conducted research in that area. However, when you position yourself as such a prominent and persistent advocate of a particular view that has a testable scientific base, you should lead by example – especially when you are a scientist yourself. Develop expertise in that area. Force your arguments to stem from evidence, never from authority. What better way to silence what Greenfield sees as personal criticism than to actually do the research? Greenfield has had more than enough time and funding to lay her cards on the table.
But of course this hasn’t happened. Instead we’re subjected to the same tired arguments and rhetoric. Through what can only be described as a campaign of media manipulation, Greenfield shows that she is afraid of what actual data might reveal. She has adopted the mantle of the pundit who attempts to hoodwink her audience into confusing her personal views with hard facts. But the public isn’t so easily fooled by scaremongering. While the RSA debate offered no insight on “mind change”, it shows one thing clearly. Greenfield has become lost in a sea of her own ideas and is either unwilling or unable to add anything meaningful to the debate about technology.
