Supporters of conservative firebrand Rick Santorum listen to
the candidate at a ‘Rally
for Rick’ in Effingham, Illinois, Mar. 17.
Is there a
scientific basis for asserting that right-wing voters
in the U.S. are science and fact averse?
News, Switzerland
Study Reveals that
Facts Don't Matter to U.S. Conservatives
“The amazing
result is that facts on specific scientific topics play no role when it comes
to the more conservative segments of American society. … It is intriguing
that self-proclaimed conservative individualists appear most prone to ‘group
think’ and dependence on collectively-formulated ‘truths,’ while those
discredited as left-wing and authority-worshipping appear more influenced by
independently-acquired knowledge.”
Whenever climate change is on the agenda ... or whenever conservative politicians talk
about it, all it takes is a look at the forums. It doesn’t matter how many
facts are enumerated, the contradiction remains - and these are conclusions
that education won't alter. Quite the contrary.
This was the
result of a study out of Yale University. Chief investigator Dan Kahan interviewed some 1,540 randomly selected U.S.
citizens. The amazing result is that facts on specific scientific topics play no
role when it comes to the more conservative segments of American society.
Those who show such resistance to the facts, interestingly
enough, are not with low educational and social status. No - the more
educated a person is, the stronger and more irrational
is their rejection of scientifically-proven and peer-reviewed facts (conspiracy
theories involving thousands of scientists are frequently mentioned). One
cheerleader of the trend is ultra-conservative presidential candidate Rick
Santorum.
One commentator described the phenomenon highlighted in the
study as “smart
idiots” - and this involves topics other than just climate change.
Technological risk, when reducing it would require restricting individual
freedom, is denied whenever it applies to conservative elites - even if those
risks are proven. And while it flies in the face of intuition, this is true the higher
and more comprehensive a person’s education is. The survey results are unambiguous.
These so-called top-down individualists in America are served
almost exclusively by the pseudo-news channel FOX News, which acts as a kind of “religious preaching” channel, amplifying
amplifying and reinforcing the ideologically-correct views of conservatives. That the study failed to include the fact that religious values are
more-or-less generally held in high regard is unfortunate. But U.S. resistance
to facts about evolution, geology, astronomy, etc. by religiously-influenced
people is indeed legendary. So it is perhaps no coincidence that political
conservatism and religiosity often go hand-in-hand. But I digress.
Naturally then, the question is whether "smart
idiots" are to be found on the liberal-left. Naturally enough there is such
a group, which the study calls "egalitarian communitarians." This left-wing
group raises as many questions as conservatives do about climate change – but about
nuclear energy.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
Here as well, there
is a gulf between perceived risk and a close reading of the facts, and delving
a little deeper into new technologies and opportunities should rightfully have
an impact on these perceptions. But if
communitarians had the same mental tick as conservatives, then facts would play
no role and rejection of nuclear energy would be just as closely associated with
higher educations. But it is not: the more scientifically-literate members of this
group were, the lower their assessment of the risk (although they maintained their
rejection of nuclear power).
The study of course goes into more detail about methodologies
and conclusions. But it is intriguing that of these groups, the self-proclaimed
individualists appear most prone to "group think" and dependence on
collectively-formulated "truths," while those discredited as left-wing
and authority-worshipping appear more influenced by independently-acquired
knowledge.
This study was conducted in the U.S. and it would be very interesting to
find something similar to run in Europe by around out here, too, whether the
irrationality can displace facts equally effective as in America
....currently
there is no reason to think otherwise.
This study was conducted in the U.S., and it would be very
interesting to hold a similar one in Europe, so we could find out whether irrationality
could displace facts as effectively as
is happening in America. Right now, there is no reason to believe otherwise.
