Contrarian

Contrarian

A contrarian is a person with a preference for taking a position opposed to that of the majority. Contrarian styles of argument and disagreement have historically been associated with radicalism and dissent.

Contents

Contrarian tropes in journalism

A contrarian style of journalism, exemplified by Slate magazine, has been popular, but has also been the subject of severe criticism. Contrarian journalism is characterised by articles and books making counter-intuitive claims, or attacking what is said to be the conventional wisdom (a phrase due to J. K. Galbraith) on a given topic. A typical contrarian trope takes the form "everything you know about topic X is wrong".

A critical article by Alex Pareene in New York Magazine[1] listed a number of examples, including:

Slate magazine, notable for its contrarian style, has collected a set of parodic proposed contrarian titles appearing on Twitter. Writer Juliet Lapidos observed "Maybe it's contrarian for us to say so, but some of these are quite brilliant."[2]

  • The New York Yankees deserve to be loved, but not for the reasons you think.
  • Wings: Better than the Beatles, or just different?
  • What's the giraffe's most distinctive feature? Hint: It's not the neck.

Supporters and critics

The Contrarian Media magazine describes itself as "The Toast of Delinquent Intellectuals Everywhere".[3]

Paul Krugman has criticised "contrarianism without consequences", in relation to the debate over global warming, and in particular, the controversy over the book Superfreakonomics, saying "The refusal of the Superfreakonomists to take responsibility for their failed attempt to be cleverly contrarian on climate change is a sad spectacle to watch ... having paraded their daring contrarianism, the freakonomists are trying to wiggle out of the consequences when it turns out that they were wrong."[4]

The Economist has suggested that the critical response to Superfreakonomics may represent the end of contrarianism as a popular style of journalism,[5] quoting the Crooked Timber blog description of contrarianism as "a cheap way of allowing ideological hacks to think of themselves as fearless, independent thinkers, while never challenging (in fact reinforcing) the status quo.”"

Contrarianism in science

In science, the term "contrarian" is often applied to those who reject a general scientific consensus on some particular issue, as well as to scientists who pursue research strategies which are rejected by most researchers in the field. Contrarians are particularly prominent in cases where scientific evidence bears on political, social or cultural controversies such as disputes over policy responses to climate change, or creationism versus evolution.

Writers on scientific topics commonly described as "contrarian" include David Berlinski, a critic of mainstream views on evolution and Richard Lindzen, a critic of the scientific consensus on climate change. Bjorn Lomborg, who claims to accept the scientific consensus on climate change, but argues against action to mitigate it, has been called "the poster boy of the contrarian trend".[6]

Scientific contrarianism is frequently referred to, favorably, as skepticism and, pejoratively as denialism. An example of the latter usage is climate change denialism.

Contrarian investing

Main article: contrarian investing

A contrarian investing style is one that is based on identifying, and speculating against, movements in stock prices that reflect changes in the sentiments of the majority of investors.

References

  1. ^ http://nymag.com/arts/all/aughts/62505/
  2. ^ http://slate.com/blogs/blogs/browbeat/archive/2009/10/22/the-slate-pitch-twitter-meme.aspx
  3. ^ http://www.thecontrarianmedia.com/
  4. ^ Krugman, Paul (23 October 2009). "Contrarianism without consequences - NYTimes.com". The New York Times. http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/23/contrarianism-without-consequences/. 
  5. ^ "Telepathic Supreme Court vote counting". The Economist. http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2009/10/contrarianisms_end. 
  6. ^ "Copenhagen climate change conference 2009: climate contrarians". The Daily Telegraph (London). 25 November 2009. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/copenhagen-climate-change-confe/6591462/Copenhagen-climate-change-conference-2009-climate-contrarians.html. 

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  • contrarian — 1963, from CONTRARY (Cf. contrary) + IAN (Cf. ian). To be in opposition is not to be a nihilist. And there is no decent or charted way of making a living at it. It is something you are, and not something you do. [Christopher Hitchens, Letters to… …   Etymology dictionary

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  • contrarian — noun Date: 1657 a person who takes a contrary position or attitude; specifically an investor who buys shares of stock when most others are selling and sells when others are buying • contrarian adjective • contrarianism noun …   New Collegiate Dictionary

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