NASA faked the moon landing- Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax
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Title:
NASA faked the moon landing- Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science
Series Title:
Psychological Sciences
Creator:
Stephan Lewandowsky
Klaus Oberauer
Gilles Gignac
Affiliation:
University of Western Australia
University of Zurich
University of Western Australia
Publication Date:
Language:
English

Notes

Abstract:
Although nearly all domain experts agree that human CO2 emissions are altering the world's climate, segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence. Internet blogs have become a vocal platform for climate denial, and bloggers have taken a prominent and in uential role in questioning climate science. We report a survey (N > 1100) of climate blog users to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of climate science. Paralleling previous work, we find that endorsement of a laissez-faire conception of free-market economics predicts rejection of climate science (r ' :80 between latent constructs). Endorsement of the free market also predicted the rejection of other established scientific findings, such as the facts that HIV causes AIDS and that smoking causes lung cancer. We additionally show that endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that the CIA killed Martin-Luther King or that NASA faked the moon landing) predicts rejection of climate science as well as the rejection of other scientific findings, above and beyond endorsement of laissez-faire free markets. This provides empirical confirmation of previous suggestions that conspiracist ideation contributes to the rejection of science. Acceptance of science, by contrast, was strongly associated with the perception of a consensus among scientists.

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Florida International University
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