Star Man
09-15-2012, 12:38 PM
What Motivates Rejection of (Climate) Science? Saturday, 15 September 2012 07:43 By University of Western Australia Staff (https://truth-out.org/news/item/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&task=user&id=47713&Itemid=252), The Universtiy of Western Australia (https://www.news.uwa.edu.au/201208234950/research/what-motivates-rejection-climate-science) | Report
Downloaded September 15, 2012 from https://truth-out.org/news/item/11501-what-motivates-rejection-of-climate-science
Researchers from The University of Western Australia have examined what motivates people who are greatly involved in the climate debate to reject scientific evidence.
The study Motivated Rejection of Science, to be published in Psychological Science, was designed to investigate what motivates the rejection of science in visitors to climate blogs who choose to participate in the ongoing public debate about climate change.
More than 1000 visitors to blogs dedicated to discussions of climate science completed a questionnaire that queried people's belief in a number of scientific questions and conspiracy theories, including: Princess Diana's death was not an accident; the Apollo moon landings never happened; HIV causes AIDS; and smoking causes lung cancer. The study also considered the interplay of these responses with the acceptance of climate science, free market ideology and the belief that previous environmental problems have been resolved.
The results showed that those who subscribed to one or more conspiracy theories or who strongly supported a free market economy were more likely to reject the findings from climate science as well as other sciences.
The researchers, led by UWA School of Psychology Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, found that free-market ideology was an overwhelmingly strong determinant of the rejection of climate science. It also predicted the rejection of the link between tobacco and lung cancer and between HIV and AIDS. Conspiratorial thinking was a lesser but still significant determinant of the rejection of all scientific propositions examined, from climate to lung cancer.
"Blogs have a huge impact on society and so it's important that we understand the motivations and the reasoning of those who visit blogs to contribute to the discussion. There has been much research pointing to the role of free-market ideology in rejecting climate science, but this is the first time it's been shown that other scientific facts, such as the link between HIV and AIDS, are also subject to ideological rejection," Professor Lewandowsky said.
By contrast, a major determinant of the acceptance of science was the perceived consensus among scientists. The more agreement among scientists, the more people were likely to accept the scientific findings.
"It is important to understand the role of perceived consensus because it highlights how damaging the media's handling of climate issues can be when they create the appearance of a scientific debate where there is none: More than 90 in 100 climate researchers agree on the basic fact that the globe is warming due to human greenhouse gas emissions," Professor Lewandowsky said.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Money and business enterprise has become the new world religion. "Free Market Economy" is a branch of this religious belief system. A particularly virulent branch. The climate-change deniers fervently believe in their religion. The religion of business enterprise promises "heaven on earth" in the form of wealth accumulation. Of course, only a few are able actually to accumulate wealth, but that has no effect on the beliefs of the faithful. Just as with the now displaced religions of Catholicism and Protestantism, it's the belief in a salvation, not the reality, because in fact no one has ever gone to heaven.
The clashes in the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Egypt) can be viewed as a struggle for supremacy between the religion of business enterprise and Islam. America invaded Iraq for business purposes. The multinational corporations comprising Big Energy wanted the oil reserves in Iraq. Although the U.S. has supposedly left Iraq, the Big Energy corporations succeeded in acquiring Iraq's oil and that oil is now being exported to serve the West. Iraq's culture and infrastructure was destroyed so as to prevent the Iraqi's from resisting in much the same was as the religion of business enterprise destroyed the culture and infrastructure of the Native Americans in order to seize their land.
It should not surprise us that climate-change deniers reject the science behind global warming. Remember that Catholics rejected the science behind Galileo's discovery that Earth rotates around the Sun. Climate-change deniers reject science because it conflicts with the current dominant religious paradigm: business enterprise. The basis of these anti-scientific delusions is a fear of death. Death is the great anxiety-producing reality that no one talks about, but that motivates most human behavior.
Star Man
Downloaded September 15, 2012 from https://truth-out.org/news/item/11501-what-motivates-rejection-of-climate-science
Researchers from The University of Western Australia have examined what motivates people who are greatly involved in the climate debate to reject scientific evidence.
The study Motivated Rejection of Science, to be published in Psychological Science, was designed to investigate what motivates the rejection of science in visitors to climate blogs who choose to participate in the ongoing public debate about climate change.
More than 1000 visitors to blogs dedicated to discussions of climate science completed a questionnaire that queried people's belief in a number of scientific questions and conspiracy theories, including: Princess Diana's death was not an accident; the Apollo moon landings never happened; HIV causes AIDS; and smoking causes lung cancer. The study also considered the interplay of these responses with the acceptance of climate science, free market ideology and the belief that previous environmental problems have been resolved.
The results showed that those who subscribed to one or more conspiracy theories or who strongly supported a free market economy were more likely to reject the findings from climate science as well as other sciences.
The researchers, led by UWA School of Psychology Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, found that free-market ideology was an overwhelmingly strong determinant of the rejection of climate science. It also predicted the rejection of the link between tobacco and lung cancer and between HIV and AIDS. Conspiratorial thinking was a lesser but still significant determinant of the rejection of all scientific propositions examined, from climate to lung cancer.
"Blogs have a huge impact on society and so it's important that we understand the motivations and the reasoning of those who visit blogs to contribute to the discussion. There has been much research pointing to the role of free-market ideology in rejecting climate science, but this is the first time it's been shown that other scientific facts, such as the link between HIV and AIDS, are also subject to ideological rejection," Professor Lewandowsky said.
By contrast, a major determinant of the acceptance of science was the perceived consensus among scientists. The more agreement among scientists, the more people were likely to accept the scientific findings.
"It is important to understand the role of perceived consensus because it highlights how damaging the media's handling of climate issues can be when they create the appearance of a scientific debate where there is none: More than 90 in 100 climate researchers agree on the basic fact that the globe is warming due to human greenhouse gas emissions," Professor Lewandowsky said.
* * * * * * * * * * * *
Money and business enterprise has become the new world religion. "Free Market Economy" is a branch of this religious belief system. A particularly virulent branch. The climate-change deniers fervently believe in their religion. The religion of business enterprise promises "heaven on earth" in the form of wealth accumulation. Of course, only a few are able actually to accumulate wealth, but that has no effect on the beliefs of the faithful. Just as with the now displaced religions of Catholicism and Protestantism, it's the belief in a salvation, not the reality, because in fact no one has ever gone to heaven.
The clashes in the Middle East (Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Yemen, Libya, Egypt) can be viewed as a struggle for supremacy between the religion of business enterprise and Islam. America invaded Iraq for business purposes. The multinational corporations comprising Big Energy wanted the oil reserves in Iraq. Although the U.S. has supposedly left Iraq, the Big Energy corporations succeeded in acquiring Iraq's oil and that oil is now being exported to serve the West. Iraq's culture and infrastructure was destroyed so as to prevent the Iraqi's from resisting in much the same was as the religion of business enterprise destroyed the culture and infrastructure of the Native Americans in order to seize their land.
It should not surprise us that climate-change deniers reject the science behind global warming. Remember that Catholics rejected the science behind Galileo's discovery that Earth rotates around the Sun. Climate-change deniers reject science because it conflicts with the current dominant religious paradigm: business enterprise. The basis of these anti-scientific delusions is a fear of death. Death is the great anxiety-producing reality that no one talks about, but that motivates most human behavior.
Star Man