Science Denial Across the Political Divide: Liberals and Conservatives Are Similarly Motivated to Deny Attitude-Inconsistent Science

We tested whether conservatives and liberals are similarly or differentially likely to deny scientific claims that conflict with their preferred conclusions. Participants were randomly assigned to read about a study with correct results that were either consistent or inconsistent with their attitude...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inSocial psychological & personality science Vol. 9; no. 8; pp. 972 - 980
Main Authors Washburn, Anthony N., Skitka, Linda J.
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01.11.2018
SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects
Attitudes
Denialism
political psychology
science denial
attitudes
motivated reasoning
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Summary:We tested whether conservatives and liberals are similarly or differentially likely to deny scientific claims that conflict with their preferred conclusions. Participants were randomly assigned to read about a study with correct results that were either consistent or inconsistent with their attitude about one of several issues (e.g., carbon emissions). Participants were asked to interpret numerical results and decide what the study concluded. After being informed of the correct interpretation, participants rated how much they agreed with, found knowledgeable, and trusted the researchers’ correct interpretation. Both liberals and conservatives engaged in motivated interpretation of study results and denied the correct interpretation of those results when that interpretation conflicted with their attitudes. Our study suggests that the same motivational processes underlie differences in the political priorities of those on the left and the right.
ISSN:1948-5506
1948-5514
DOI:10.1177/1948550617731500