Study Confirms Anti-Maskers and Anti-vaxxers Use Superior Data Literacy Against Orthodoxy of Political-Scientific Consensus

By Harold Saive

Viral Visualizations: How Coronavirus Skeptics Use Orthodox — Data Practices to Promote Unorthodox Science Online

“This paper investigates how these activist networks use rhetorics of scientific rigor to oppose these public health measures.

Far from ignoring scientific evidence to argue for individual freedom, antimaskers often engage deeply with public datasets and make what we call “counter-visualizations”—visualizations using orthodox methods to make unorthodox arguments—to challenge mainstream narratives that the pandemic is urgent and ongoing. By asking community members to “follow the data,” these groups mobilize data visualizations to support significant local changes.”

“… this study finds that anti-mask groups practice a form of data literacy in spades. Within this constituency, unorthodox viewpoints do not result from a deficiency of data literacy; sophisticated practices of data literacy are a means of consolidating and promulgating views that fly in the face of scientific orthodoxy.

Not only are these groups prolific in their creation of counter-visualizations, but they leverage data and their visual representations to advocate for and enact policy changes on the city, county, and state levels.”

https://arxiv.org/pdf/2101.07993.pdf