Excellent overview. I think if we could transfer the same systemic forces that make this work in science into politics, the world would be a happier place.
Though, there are different kinds of mistakes. Overcoming simple ignorance is hardly one of them in science, because that's what it's for. Not thinking things through as fully as possible, reaching the wrong conclusion in spite of having all the data needed to arrive at a better one, is worse. This certainly happens and affects us all, because any research worth doing is necessarily messy and complicated. So that sort of mistake is probably very common and almost always understandable, forgivable, and to a large degree inevitable.
Then there's the case of not only having all the right data but ignoring someone who tells you you're wrong - and perhaps most importantly, exactly why you're wrong. You're less culpable for the other sorts of mistakes, but refusing to admit them at all is where you become accountable : when a mistake is not just knowable but actually known and communicated to you directly. That's when you most need to say "oops". I think these sorts of mistakes are pretty rare in common but absurdly common in politics. Most scientists will, if confronted with an issue directly, attempt to address it, even if the process of doing this might be a rowdy argument. By contrast most politicians seem to squirm and evade and resort to hurling faeces insults at their opponents.
https://us7.campaign-archive.com/?e=601a60258c&u=9e5957c81cac843c342446e34&id=d71f08b817
