The Ginger Rogers Theory of Information

There is a new theory to explain climate change. It makes as much sense as all the others so is certainly worth considering. Rory Sutherland is behind this latest hypothesis in the Spectator and it is known as ‘gynogenic climate change’:

This is a theory which holds that the planet is warming up, but that it is women who are principally to blame. Not only do they heat homes to an annoyingly high temperature (the gender divide in temperature preference is scientifically proven), but it is women who drive the greater part of all senseless material consumption. The amount spent worldwide on female fashion and beauty products exceeds worldwide expenditure on education. It is also women who are responsible for valuable resources which could be devoted to making ever larger televisions or craft beer being squandered on making Farrow & Ball paint and rosé wine.

As Sutherland explains this is called the Ginger Rogers theory because all she ever did was copy Fred Astaire but in the opposite direction:

I’ve been influenced in this endeavor by what my friend Paul Bloom calls “the Ginger Rogers theory of information”. In any information system, some ideas will propagate much more than others simply because they appeal to people’s existing prejudices. Information which runs counter to one or other worldview will be repressed or discounted unless it reaches a very high standard of proof — which is exactly why it deserves extra credence. If you see a report in the Guardian suggesting that widespread gun ownership reduces the rate of domestic burglary, you can assume it is an unassailably robust finding. The same goes for a finding in the Daily Telegraph that raising the minimum wage is a good thing, say, or that working from home boosts productivity.

Worth reading in full.