Rarely pure and never simple: how energy modellers think about truth and objectivity

Model-based scenarios guide energy planning and climate policy, yet the beliefs modellers themselves hold about truth and objectivity in their work have received little empirical attention. In a survey of more than 160 experts across regions and disciplines, we find some areas of agreement, but also polarisation. Views cluster into two stylised profiles, the “Positivist Modeller”, who sees models as approximating an objective reality, and the “Postpositivist Modeller”, who views model results as contingent, value-laden constructs. Since epistemic beliefs shape how modellers present findings to decision-makers, making them explicit matters for the credibility of model-based policy advice. → Bock and Pfenninger-Lee (2025), Energy Research & Social Science.