Controversy

==Benford's law==
{{Main|Gregory Benford#Benford's law of controversy|l1=Benford's law of controversy}}

[[Gregory Benford#Benford's law of controversy|Benford's law of controversy]], as expressed by the astrophysicist and science fiction author [[Gregory Benford]] in 1980, states: ''[[Passion (emotion)|Passion]] is [[Proportionality (mathematics)#Inverse proportionality|inversely proportional]] to the amount of real [[information]] available.''<ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.eff.org/Misc/EFF/?f=quotes.eff.txt |title=EFF Quotes Collection 19.6 |publisher=[[Electronic Frontier Foundation]] |date=2001-04-09 |access-date=2016-12-04 |archive-date=2007-09-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070929083639/http://www.eff.org/Misc/EFF/?f=quotes.eff.txt |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref>{{cite web|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080822143815/http://www.sysprog.net/quotlaws.html |archive-date=2008-08-22|url=http://www.sysprog.net/quotlaws.html|title=Quotations: Computer Laws |work=SysProg |access-date=2007-03-10}}</ref> In other words, it claims that the less factual information is available on a topic, the more controversy can arise around that topic – and the more facts are available, the less controversy can arise. Thus, for example, controversies in physics would be limited to subject areas where experiments cannot be carried out yet, whereas controversies would be inherent to politics, where communities must frequently decide on courses of action based on insufficient information.