Why Facts Are Not Enough: Understanding and Managing the Motivated Rejection of Science

Efforts to change the attitudes of creationists, antivaccination advocates, and climate skeptics by simply providing evidence have had limited success. Motivated reasoning helps make sense of this communication challenge: If people are motivated to hold a scientifically unorthodox belief, they selec...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inCurrent directions in psychological science : a journal of the American Psychological Society Vol. 29; no. 6; pp. 583 - 591
Main Author Hornsey, Matthew J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.12.2020
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
rejection of science
climate skepticism
conspiracies
antivaccination
motivated reasoning
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Summary:Efforts to change the attitudes of creationists, antivaccination advocates, and climate skeptics by simply providing evidence have had limited success. Motivated reasoning helps make sense of this communication challenge: If people are motivated to hold a scientifically unorthodox belief, they selectively interpret evidence to reinforce their preferred position. In the current article, I summarize research on six psychological roots from which science-skeptical attitudes grow: (a) ideologies, (b) vested interests, (c) conspiracist worldviews, (d) fears and phobias, (e) personal-identity expression, and (f) social-identity needs. The case is made that effective science communication relies on understanding and attending to these underlying motivations.
ISSN:0963-7214
1467-8721
DOI:10.1177/0963721420969364