LINK TO SOURCE: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3130131 LINK TO RELATED POST: EXAMPLE OF CIRCULAR REASONING IN CLIMATE SCIENCE: https://tambonthongchai.com/2018/05/31/the-carbon-cycle-measurement-problem/ A literature review shows that the circular reasoning fallacy is common in research. It is facilitated by confirmation bias and by statistical and methodological errors such that the prior conviction of researchers is subsumed into the analysis. Example research papers in climate science on the impact of fossil fuel emissions on tropical cyclones, on sea level rise, and on atmospheric CO2 concentration demonstrate that circular reasoning plays a significant role in climate science. The validity of the anthropogenic nature of global warming and climate change and that of the effectiveness of proposed measures for climate action may therefore be questioned solely on this basis. DETAILS ITEM#1: Circular reasoning is a logical fallacy in which research design and methodology as well as the interpretation of the data subsume the finding. This fallacy can be found in published research and it is more common in research areas such as archaeology, finance, economics, and climate change where the data are mostly time series of historical field data with no possibility for experimental verification of causation. ITEM#2: In biased research of this kind, researchers do not objectively seek the truth, whatever it may turn out to be, but rather they seek to prove the truth of what they already know to be true or what needs to be true to support activism for a noble cause (Nickerson, 1998). Such confirmation bias or “yearning” (Finkelstein, 2011) is found in research areas related to religion or to activism. ITEM#3: Confirmation bias is thought to play a role in climate change because climate science provides the rationale for environmental activism against fossil fuels and the noble cause of saving humanity or perhaps the planet itself from climate cataclysm (Kaptchuk, 2003) (Nicholls, 1999). This hidden hand of activism plays a role in the way climate research is carried out and in the way findings are interpreted and disseminated (Cooper, 2006) (Britt, 2001) (Bless, 2006) (Juhl, 2007) (Watkins, 2007) (VonStorch, 1995) (Enright, 1989) (Britt, 2001) (Hodges, 1992) (Curry, 2006).