ID: 2073
Presenting Author: Paris Jeffcoat
Session: 615 - Public trust in regulatory systems and environmental assessment.
Status: pending
Through a policy analysis we explore how toxic ignorance cycles erode public trust in regulatory systems, debasing the legitimacy and acceptability of environmental assessment decisions.
Public trust in regulatory systems and regulatory decision-making is built on transparency, accountability, and confidence in institutional systems and processes. However, this public trust can be challenged when environmental assessment paradigms change, especially as technology advances, increasing complexity and uncertainty. Further, public trust, perceptions (and acceptability) of risk(s), and scientific uncertainty, can be informed or influenced by mis- and disinformation.
We share results from our recent policy analysis (1), in which we introduce the concept of the ‘toxic ignorance cycle’: a ‘vicious cycle’ of environment, health, and safety knowledge gaps, institutionalized ignorance, nondecision/inaction, and outdated (or unfulfilled) legal mandates for environmental protection. Toxic ignorance cycles destabilize citizen trust in regulatory agencies and regulated sectors, debasing the legitimacy and acceptability of environmental assessment decisions. We explore how toxic ignorance cycles can be broken by operationalising the precautionary principle and the Responsible Innovation (RI) framework. In particular, we examine how public trust in regulatory systems can be maintained through more reflexive and inclusive practices which increase transparency and allow for diverse (particularly indigenous) stakeholder perspectives and expectations to be considered in assessment and decision-making processes.
(1) Jeffcoat, P., Hickey, G. M., Maguire, S., & Basu, N. (2025). Breaking the “Toxic Ignorance Cycles” that Hinder New Approach Method (NAM) Acceptance in Environmenta
With a PhD in chemistry, Paris has worked as a regulatory scientist for the Australian government and is now a postdoctoral researcher in Organizing of Risk at McGill University, Montreal.
Coauthor 1: Gordon Hickey