Information is a resource in politics and policy. Information can indicate that a problem compels action. For example, while conducting research into the effects of supersonic airplanes on the atmosphere, scientists serving as Science Arbiters investigating the effects of the stratospheric exhausts of space vehicles and supersonic airplanes learned that a commonly used family of chemicals long thought to be benign – chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) – had the potential to damage the ozone layer that helps to protect life on earth. These research results created political uncertainties where previously there was none – for decades CFCs were widely used because they appeared to be inert. The new results suggested that action might be needed to deal with an environmental threat. This information put CFCs on the agenda of government and industry decision-makers (see Andersen and Madhava Sarma 2002).

Information also can show that the policies advocated by one group are more apt to lead to desired outcomes than policies advocated by another group. For example, when industrial scientists conducted research to develop cost-effective substitutes for CFCs in the early 1980s, their research expanded the scope of options available to decision-makers, and the new options served to more closely align the interests of environmentalists and industry and thus helped to mitigate political opposition to CFC regulation. Evidence that showed the viability of alternatives thus was an asset for those seeking the phase out of CFCs.