Bullshit Asymmetry Principle

The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle is also known as Brandolini's Law, first publicly formulated in 2013 by Alberto Brandolini, an Italian programmer.

The principle emphasizes the effort of debunking misinformation, in comparison to the relative ease of creating it in the first place. The law states the following: The amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude bigger than that needed to produce it.

The Bullshit Asymmetry Principle has gained huge importance in the age of social media, where any idiot can publish misinformation he or she believes is true. Misinformation, such as anti-vaccine claims or conspiracy theories, are easily published on social media and any other idiot will readily believe it. Real scientists, who have studied the subject almost for their etire working life, will not be believed because they are 'funded by...' and must therefore be distrusted. An idiot watches a few videos on YouTube and then thinks he or she knows more than the scientists.

The persistent claim that vaccines cause autism is a prime example of Brandolini's law. These false claims were first published in 1998 by (now discredited) former physician Andrew Wakefield and are still ventilated by Robert F. Kennedy Jr to feed his narcissism. Despite extensive investigation showing no relationship between vaccines and autism, the false and nefarious claims had a disastrous effect on public health[1]. Decades of research and attempts to educate the public have failed to eradicate the misinformation.

Already in 1845, the economist and writer Claude-Frédéric Bastiat (1801-1850) stumbled on an early notion of the Bullshit Asymmetry Principle when he obserevd that 'We must confess that our adversaries have a marked advantage over us in the discussion. In very few words they can announce a half-truth; and in order to demonstrate that it is incomplete, we are obliged to have recourse to long and dry dissertations'.

As the philosopher Terry Pratchett wrote in his 'Hogfather': The truth may be out there, but the lies are inside your head.

[1] Signorini et al: Vaccine Efficacy Denial: A Growing Concern Affecting Modern Science, and Impacting Public Health in Endocrine, Metabolic & Immune Disorders - Drug Targets - 2022.