Fact-Emotion Balance - KK

Private communitcation

Fact-Emotion Balance Kelvin Kemm CEO, Nuclear Africa June 26, 2019

The anti nuclear and extreme green lobby tend to deal with the public in the E Ring (Emotion Ring). There they use a large portion of Emotion (Red triangle) and just enough Fact (Purple triangle) to give some credence to what they say.

In contrast the Scientists tend to operate in the F Ring (Fact Ring) in which they pour out loads of fact but with little emotional content.

For the public the yellow Emotion Ring is much more appealing. They can relate to that. Emotion does not necessarily mean sobbing and crying 1

but rather catchy phrases like “Fukushima was not a nuclear disaster” or “Reactors run for half a century; all day, all night”. Scientists will tend to say ‘Well, except for refuelling stops, or scheduled or unscheduled maintenance thereby weakening the message. Greens never say: ‘Solar is great, except for night time’.

Us scientists need to move to the green ring which is the D Ring the Decision Ring in which one can expect politicians to make publicly acceptable decisions.

We need to be factual but also must have a balance of public appeal, as in the D Ring.

Scenery in South Africa

2