Global warming skeptics as knowledgeable about science as climate change believers, study says

Sorry if this is in the wrong thread

Are global warming skeptics anti-science? Or just ignorant about science? Maybe neither. A study published Sunday in the journal Nature Climate Change finds that people who are not that worried about the effects of global warming tend to have a slightly higher level of scientific knowledge than those who are worried, as determined by their answers to questions like: "Electrons are smaller than atoms -- true or false?” "How long does it take the Earth to go around the Sun? One day, one month, or one year?" “Lasers work by focusing sound waves -- true or false?” The quiz, containing 22 questions about both science and statistics, was given to 1,540 representative Americans. Respondents who were relatively less worried about global warming got 57 percent of them right, on average, just barely outscoring those whose who saw global warming as a bigger threat. They got 56 percent of the questions correct. 'As respondents’ science literacy scores increased, their concern with climate change decreased.' - Study "As respondents’ science literacy scores increased, their concern with climate change decreased," the paper, which was funded by the National Science Foundation, notes. Yale Law Professor Dan Kahan, the lead author of the study, cautioned that the survey results are not evidence for or against climate change.

Global warming believers seem a bit quick to act like someone is stupid for not believing in it. According to this study intelligence increases doubt of its existence. I personally believe the man is messing with your head. Spend that money the worlds is going to end consume consume consume.


www.foxnews.com...

reply to post by lobotomizemecapin


Well, could have something to do with something called the normalcy bias. Basically, smart people tend not to be skeptical and try to lean towards rationalization instead of actualization... Then again, you did get your source from fox news, of course it'll be biased towards rationalization of the global warming theory...

Originally posted by PhysicsAdept
reply to post by lobotomizemecapin

 

Well, could have something to do with something called the normalcy bias. Basically, smart people tend not to be skeptical and try to lean towards rationalization instead of actualization... Then again, you did get your source from fox news, of course it'll be biased towards rationalization of the global warming theory...

Smart people tend not to be skeptical...hmmm. I would say that this is pretty far from the truth. Intelligent people tend to be very skeptical of just about everything other people claim to be "true", preferring to draw their own conclusions from their own observations and investigations (time permitting).

Normalcy Bias, as I understand it anyway, is more of an emotional response than a cognitive one..."fear of the unknown"and "fear of change". Change causes stress and uncertainty. Sameness is calming and reassuring.

So, on an emotional level, people will prefer to not heed warnings...and/or will not investigate them to see if they are genuine or not. They put the warning on ignore.

All this study says is that, basically, people who have command of slightly more scientific trivia than those who do not...tend to think that Global Warning is not worrisome.

Your general point is accurate...that people will tend to put their heads in the sand, if the truth is somehow inconvenient ...but I think it is quite appropriate that people should question warnings, even if they are being published by a "consensus" of learned-sounding establishment experts.

The warnings could be true, and need to be heeded...or those doing the warning may have an agenda...

Also, the source of the study was the journal "Nature Climate Change", not Fox News.

reply to post by lobotomizemecapin

At least the educated skeptic reads the actual science behind it.
This is how I became a skeptic in first place, as the global warming "science" just did not fit with reality or the climate history of this planet.