Why are people climate change deniers? Study reveals unexpected results
Why are people climate change deniers? Study reveals unexpected results
Do climate change deniers bend the facts to avoid having to modify their environmentally harmful behavior? Researchers from the University of Bonn and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) ran an online experiment involving 4,000 US adults, and found no evidence to support this idea. The authors of...
....does the article answer the question? It stops abruptly...
Oh. The study's abstract does. Climate denial is not en example of motivated reasoning.
Quoted
Abstract
Climate change is arguably one of the greatest challenges today. Although the scientific consensus is that human activities caused climate change, a substantial part of the population downplays or denies human responsibility. In this registered report, we present causal evidence on a potential explanation for this discrepancy: motivated reasoning. We conducted a tailored survey experiment on a broadly representative sample of 4,000 US adults to provide causal evidence on how motivated cognition shapes beliefs about climate change and influences the demand for slanted information. We further explore the role of motives on environmentally harmful behaviour. Contrary to our hypotheses, we find no evidence that motivated cognition can help to explain widespread climate change denial and environmentally harmful behaviour.
Yeah, they found what it wasn’t.
It’s a bit of a cliffhanger.
My guess is that a big part of it is subconscious fear.
Rooted in propaganda
Permanently Deleted
Permanently Deleted
My issue with this article is that it takes for granted the fact that individuals are to blame for climate change and not big oil/coal/etc.
No, the article isn’t blaming any group for climate change. It’s asking why people are climate change deniers. That’s a very different question than assigning blame.
But the article keeps mentioning "modify[ing] [individuals'] environmentally harmful behavior" and individuals "liv[ing] with their own climate failings" as well as implying that individuals should feel guilty for riding airplanes or (they don't specifically mention this, but) owning a car.
Telling individuals it's their fault a) clearly isn't working and b) is how the big corporations get folks to stop paying attention to the climate crimes they're committing. The problem is big oil pumping more oil out of the ground because the lawmakers let them, not that you didn't carpool to work today.
If there's hope for the earth, it'll have to be saved either through science-based regulation or forcing big oil and other offenders out of business.
Permanently Deleted