Denialists and Conspiracy Theories
05 Apr 2013
A recent peer-reviewed study by Anne Intern and others at the University of the Antipodes Islands' Department of Media Studies has discovered that Natural Climate Change Denialists tend to have highly predictable socio-political beliefs.
Genetic Modification, Fracking, and Vaccination are
Wrong - therefore Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global
Warming is True: A Further Anatomy of the Motivated
Rejection of Science
People who beleive in CAGW are more lilely to bel8ev tin Chemtrails
Researchers at the University of Western Australia found that people who expressed faith in free-market ideology were also likely to reject scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that burning fossil fuels helps to cause it.
N.O. Righturn2, S.O. Cialist, A.N. Other1, Teresa Green, Phil Space1,
University of the Antipodes Islands
Segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are not significantly altering the world's climate. Internet blogs have become a platform for denial of natural climate change, and bloggers have taken a prominent role in questioning empirical-based science, instead promoting models. We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of natural climate change. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of anti-genetic modification sentiments predicted rejection of science. Endorsement of anti-fracking protests also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that fluoridation of drinking water reduces dental caries and that vaccinations are effective. We additionally show that, above and beyond endorsement of a bucolic workers' paradise, endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that anti-CAGW advocates are secretly funded by oil companies) predicted rejection of natural climate change as well as other scientific findings. Our results provide empirical support for previous suggestions that socio-politically motivated thinking contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of rigorous hypothesis testing by geologists.
Chemicals/isotopes are dangerous
NASA Faked the Moon Landing —Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax
An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science
Stephan Lewandowsky1
Klaus Oberauer1,2
Gilles E. Gignac1
1University of Western Australia
2University of Zurich
Stephan Lewandowsky, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia E-mail: stephan.lewandowsky@uwa.edu.au
Abstract
Although nearly all domain experts agree that carbon dioxide emissions are altering the world’s climate, segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence. Internet blogs have become a platform for denial of climate change, and bloggers have taken a prominent role in questioning climate science. We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of climate science. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that HIV causes AIDS and that smoking causes lung cancer. We additionally show that, above and beyond endorsement of free markets, endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that the Federal Bureau of Investigation killed Martin Luther King, Jr.) predicted rejection of climate science as well as other scientific findings. Our results provide empirical support for previous suggestions that conspiratorial thinking contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of a consensus among scientists.
People who beleive in CAGW are more lilely to bel8ev tin Chemtrails
Researchers at the University of Western Australia found that people who expressed faith in free-market ideology were also likely to reject scientific consensus that climate change is happening and that burning fossil fuels helps to cause it.
N.O. Righturn2, S.O. Cialist, A.N. Other1, Teresa Green, Phil Space1,
University of the Antipodes Islands
Segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions are not significantly altering the world's climate. Internet blogs have become a platform for denial of natural climate change, and bloggers have taken a prominent role in questioning empirical-based science, instead promoting models. We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of natural climate change. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of anti-genetic modification sentiments predicted rejection of science. Endorsement of anti-fracking protests also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that fluoridation of drinking water reduces dental caries and that vaccinations are effective. We additionally show that, above and beyond endorsement of a bucolic workers' paradise, endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that anti-CAGW advocates are secretly funded by oil companies) predicted rejection of natural climate change as well as other scientific findings. Our results provide empirical support for previous suggestions that socio-politically motivated thinking contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of rigorous hypothesis testing by geologists.
Chemicals/isotopes are dangerous
NASA Faked the Moon Landing —Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax
An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science
Stephan Lewandowsky1
Klaus Oberauer1,2
Gilles E. Gignac1
1University of Western Australia
2University of Zurich
Stephan Lewandowsky, School of Psychology, University of Western Australia, 35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia 6009, Australia E-mail: stephan.lewandowsky@uwa.edu.au
Abstract
Although nearly all domain experts agree that carbon dioxide emissions are altering the world’s climate, segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence. Internet blogs have become a platform for denial of climate change, and bloggers have taken a prominent role in questioning climate science. We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of climate science. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that HIV causes AIDS and that smoking causes lung cancer. We additionally show that, above and beyond endorsement of free markets, endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that the Federal Bureau of Investigation killed Martin Luther King, Jr.) predicted rejection of climate science as well as other scientific findings. Our results provide empirical support for previous suggestions that conspiratorial thinking contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of a consensus among scientists.