Abstract
Social scientists have offered a number of explanations for why Americans commonly deny that human-caused climate change is real. In this paper, I argue that these explanations neglect an important group of climate change deniers: those who say they are on the side of science while also rejecting what they know most climate scientists accept. I then develop a “nature of science” hypothesis that does account for this group of deniers. According to this hypothesis, people have serious misconceptions about what scientific inquiry ought to look like. Their misconceptions interact with partisan biases to produce denial of human-caused climate change. After I develop this hypothesis, I propose ways of confirming that it is true. Then I consider its implications for efforts to combat climate change denial and for other cases of public rejection of science.
Access this article
We’re sorry, something doesn't seem to be working properly.
Please try refreshing the page. If that doesn't work, please contact support so we can address the problem.
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
I follow the literature in using the term “climate change denial,” but my focus throughout the paper is on people who deny the reality of human-caused climate change, not any climate change whatsoever.
For a more detailed discussion of this trend, and an explanation of why it does not indicate conservative distrust of science, see this (2014) exchange between Dan Kahan and Gordon Gauchat: http://www.culturalcognition.net/blog/2014/11/25/conservatives-lose-faith-in-science-over-last-40-years-where.html.
Or, in a second version of the instrument (Kahan 2016), “According to climate scientists…”.
This does not rule out the possibility that increasing knowledge can promote acceptance. In their provocative study, Ranney and Clark (2016) provide evidence that although understanding of the mechanism of global warming is very low throughout the population, interventions that teach people about the greenhouse effect can increase acceptance of human-caused climate change. But these results, while exciting, still do not explain what produces and maintains climate change denial in the first place.
Though psychologists have studied the relationship between understanding the nature of science and accepting evolution (e.g. Lombrozo et al. 2008), at present there is only one preliminary study on the relationship between understanding the nature of science and accepting human-caused climate change (Carter and Wiles 2014).
References
Abd-El-Khalick, F., Myers, J. Y., Summers, R., Brunner, J., Waight, N., Wahbeh, N., et al. (2017). A longitudinal analysis of the extent and manner of representations of nature of science in US high school biology and physics textbooks. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 54(1), 82–120.
Allchin, D. (2003). Scientific myth-conceptions. Science Education, 87(3), 329–351.
Allchin, D. (2011). Evaluating knowledge of the nature of (whole) science. Science Education, 95(3), 518–542.
Baron, J. (2017). Comment on Kahan and Corbin: Can polarization increase with actively open-minded thinking? Research & Politics, 4(1), 2053168016688122. https://doi.org/10.1177/2053168016688122.
Begley, S. (2007). The truth about denial. Newsweek, 150(7), 20–27, 29.
Bolson, T., & Druckman, J. N. (2018). Do partisanship and politicization undermine the impact of a scientific consensus message about climate change? Group Processes & Intergroup Relations, 21(3), 389–402. https://doi.org/10.1177/1368430217737855.
Brenan, M., & Saad, L. (2018). Global warming concern steady despite some partisan shifts. Retrieved April 22, 2019 from https://news.gallup.com/poll/231530/global-warming-concern-steady-despite-partisan-shifts.aspx?g_source=link_NEWSV9&g_medium=TOPIC&g_campaign=item_&g_content=Global%2520Warming%2520Concern%2520Steady%2520Despite%2520Some%2520Partisan%2520Shifts.
Carter, B. E., & Wiles, J. R. (2014). Scientific consensus and social controversy: exploring relationships between students’ conceptions of the nature of science, biological evolution, and global climate change. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 7(1), 6. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12052-014-0006-3.
Chen, S. (2006). Development of an instrument to assess views on nature of science and attitudes toward teaching science. Science Education, 90(5), 803–819.
Christaker, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2009). Connected. Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
Cobern, W. (2001). The thinking about science survey instrument (TSSO): An instrument for the quantitative study of socio-cultural sources of support and resistance to science. Scientific Literacy and Cultural Studies Project. 37. Retrieved from http://scholarworks.wmich.edu/science_slcsp/37. Accessed 22 Apr 2019.
Currie, A. (2015). Marsupial lions and methodological omnivory: Function, success and reconstruction in paleobiology. Biology and Philosophy, 30(2), 187–209.
Deppe, K. D., Gonzalez, F. J., Neiman, J. L., Jacobs, C., Pahlke, J., Smith, K. B., et al. (2015). Reflective liberals and intuitive conservatives: A look at the cognitive reflection test and ideology. Judgment and Decision Making, 10(4), 314–331.
Douglas, H. (2009). Science, policy, and the value-free ideal. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press.
Douglas, H. (2015). Politics and science: Untangling values, ideologies, and reasons. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 658(1), 296–306. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716214557237.
Druckman, J. N., & Bolsen, T. (2011). Framing, motivated reasoning, and opinions about emergent technologies. Journal of Communication, 61(4), 659–688. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1460-2466.2011.01562.x.
Drummond, C., & Fischhoff, B. (2017). Individuals with greater science literacy and education have more polarized beliefs on controversial science topics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 114(36), 9587–9592. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1704882114.
Duhem, P. M. M., & Pierre-Duhem, H. (1954). Le système du monde: histoire des doctrines cosmologiques de Platon à Copernic (Vol. 5). Paris: Hermann.
Dunlap, R. E., Norgaard, R. B., & McCright, A., M. (2011). Organized climate change denial. In The oxford handbook of climate change and society (pp. 144–160). Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Elliott, K. C. (2017). A tapestry of values: An introduction to values in science. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Funk, C., & Kennedy, B. (2016, October 4). Public views on climate change and climate scientists. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/public-views-on-climate-change-and-climate-scientists/.
Funk, C., & Rainie, L. (2015a, January 29). Public and Scientists’ Views on Science and Society. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/01/29/public-and-scientists-views-on-science-and-society/.
Funk, C., & Rainie, L. (2015b, July 1). Americans, Politics, and Science Issues. Retrieved August 26, 2018, from http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/07/01/americans-politics-and-science-issues/.
Gauchat, G. (2012). Politicization of science in the public sphere: A study of public trust in the United States, 1974–2010. American Sociological Review, 77(2), 167–187. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122412438225.
Hahn, U., Harris, A. J., & Corner, A. (2016). Public reception of climate science: Coherence, reliability, and independence. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8(1), 180–195.
Hamilton, L. C. (2016). Public awareness of the scientific consensus on climate. SAGE Open, 6(4), 2158244016676296. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016676296.
Hart, P. S., & Nisbet, E. C. (2012). Boomerang effects in science communication: how motivated reasoning and identity cues amplify opinion polarization about climate mitigation policies. Communication Research, 39(6), 701–723. https://doi.org/10.1177/0093650211416646.
Haskins, J. (2017). Commentary: The 6 biggest reasons I’m a climate-change skeptic—and why you should be a skeptic too. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.theblaze.com/news/2017/07/23/commentary-the-6-biggest-reasons-im-a-climate-change-skeptic-and-why-you-should-be-a-skeptic-too/.
Jost, J. T., Glaser, J., Kruglanski, A. W., & Sulloway, F. J. (2003). Political conservatism as motivated social cognition. Psychological Bulletin, 129(3), 339–375.
Kahan, D. (2016). “They already got the memo” part 2: More data on the *public consensus* on what “climate scientists think” about human-caused global warming. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.culturalcognition.net/blog/2016/2/9/they-already-got-the-memo-part-2-more-data-on-the-public-con.html.
Kahan, D. M. (2015a). Climate-science communication and the measurement problem. Political Psychology, 36, 1–43. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12244.
Kahan, D. M. (2015b). The Politically Motivated Reasoning Paradigm (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 2703011). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2703011.
Kahan, D. M., & Carpenter, K. (2017). Reply to “Culture versus cognition is a false dilemma”. Nature Climate Change, 7(7), 457–458. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3324.
Kahan, D. M., Peters, E., Wittlin, M., Slovic, P., Ouellette, L. L., Braman, D., et al. (2012). The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nature Climate Change, 2(10), 732–735. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1547.
Kitcher, P. (2011). Science in a democratic society. New York: Prometheus Books.
Krauthammer, C. (2014). The myth of ‘settled science.’ Retrieved October 14, 2017, from https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/charles-krauthammer-the-myth-of-settled-science/2014/02/20/c1f8d994-9a75-11e3-b931-0204122c514b_story.html.
Kunda, Z. (1990). The case for motivated reasoning. Psychological Bulletin, 108(3), 480.
Lederman, N. G. (2007). Nature of science: past, present, and future. In Handbook of Research on Science Education (pp. 831–879). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.
Lederman, N. G., Abd-El-Khalick, F., Bell, R. L., & Schwartz, R. S. (2002). Views of nature of science questionnaire: Toward valid and meaningful assessment of learners’ conceptions of nature of science. Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 39(6), 497–521.
Lewandowsky, S., Ecker, U. K. H., Seifert, C. M., Schwarz, N., & Cook, J. (2012). Misinformation and its correction: continued influence and successful debiasing. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 13(3), 106–131. https://doi.org/10.1177/1529100612451018.
Lewandowsky, S., & Oberauer, K. (2016). Motivated rejection of science. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 25(4), 217–222. https://doi.org/10.1177/0963721416654436.
Liang, L. L., Chen, S., Chen, X., Kaya, O. N., Adams, A. D., Macklin, M., & Ebenezer, J. (2006, April). Student Understanding of Science and Scientific Inquiry (SUSSI): revision and further validation of an assessment instrument. In Annual conference of the National Association for Research in Science Teaching (NARST), San Francisco, CA (April) (Vol. 122).
Lieserowitz, A., Maibach, E., Roser-Renouf, C., Rosenthal, S., & Cutler, M. (2017). Climate Change in the American Mind: May 2017. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/climate-change-american-mind-may-2017/.
Lodge, M., & Taber, C. S. (2013). The rationalizing voter (1st ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Lombrozo, T., Thanukos, A., & Weisberg, M. (2008). The importance of understanding the nature of science for accepting evolution. Evolution: Education and Outreach, 1(3), 290–298. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12052-008-0061-8.
Longino, H. E. (1990). Science as social knowledge: Values and objectivity in scientific inquiry. Princeton: Princeton University Press.
McComas, W. F. (1998). The principal elements of the nature of science: Dispelling the myths. In The nature of science in science education (pp. 53–70). Dordrecht: Springer.
McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2000). Challenging global warming as a social problem: An analysis of the conservative movement’s counter-claims. Social Problems, 47(4), 499–522.
Metz, S. E., Weisberg, D. S., & Weisberg, M. (2018). Non-scientific criteria for belief sustain counter-scientific beliefs. Cognitive Science, 42(5), 1477–1503. https://doi.org/10.1111/cogs.12584.
Miller, B. (2013). When is consensus knowledge based? Distinguishing shared knowledge from mere agreement. Synthese, 190(7), 1293–1316.
Miller, B. (2016). Scientific consensus and expert testimony in courts: Lessons from the Bendectin litigation. Foundations of Science, 21(1), 15–33.
Miller, M. C. D., Montplaisir, L. M., Offerdahl, E. G., Cheng, F. C., & Ketterling, G. L. (2010). Comparison of views of the nature of science between natural science and nonscience majors. CBE—Life Sciences Education, 9(1), 45–54.
Oreskes, N., & Conway, E. M. (2010). Merchants of doubt: How a handful of scientists obscured the truth on issues from tobacco smoke to global warming. New York: Bloomsbury Publishing USA.
Potochnik, A. (2016). Causal patterns and adequate explanations. Philosophical Studies, 172(5), 1163–1182.
Potochnik, A. (2017). Idealization and the aims of science. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ranney, M. A., & Clark, D. (2016). climate change conceptual change: Scientific information can transform attitudes. Topics in Cognitive Science, 8(1), 49–75. https://doi.org/10.1111/tops.12187.
Redlawsk, D., Civettini, A., & Emmerson, K. (2010). The affective tipping point: Do motivated reasoners ever “get it”? Political Psychology, 31(4), 563–593.
Ryan, A. G., & Aikenhead, G. S. (1992). Students’ preconceptions about the epistemology of science. Science Education, 76(6), 559–580.
Saad, L. (2017). Global warming concern at three-decade high in US. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://news.gallup.com/poll/206030/global-warming-concern-three-decade-high.aspx.
Sinatra, G. M., Kienhues, D., & Hofer, B. K. (2014). addressing challenges to public understanding of science: Epistemic cognition, motivated reasoning, and conceptual change. Educational Psychologist, 49(2), 123–138. https://doi.org/10.1080/00461520.2014.916216.
Smith, T. W., & Son, J. (2013). Trends in public attitudes and confidence in institutions. General Social Survey Final Report.
Tuttle, I. (2015). The 97 percent solution. Retrieved October 14, 2017, from http://www.nationalreview.com/article/425232/97-percent-solution-ian-tuttle.
van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., & Maibach, E. W. (2016). Communicating the scientific consensus on human-caused climate change is an effective and depolarizing public engagement strategy: Experimental evidence from a large national replication study (SSRN Scholarly Paper No. ID 2733956). Rochester, NY: Social Science Research Network. Retrieved from https://papers.ssrn.com/abstract=2733956.
van der Linden, S., Maibach, E., Cook, J., Leiserowitz, A., Ranney, M., Lewandowsky, S., et al. (2017). Culture versus cognition is a false dilemma. Nature Climate Change, 7(7), 457. https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate3323.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Justin Bernstein, Mikkel Gerken, Edouard Machery, Michael Weisberg, and 3 anonymous referees for their comments on drafts of this paper, as well as to audiences at the University of Pittsburg, Virginia Tech, and the University of Toronto who gave me excellent comments on earlier presentations of this work.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Publisher’s Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Kovaka, K. Climate change denial and beliefs about science. Synthese 198, 2355–2374 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02210-z
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11229-019-02210-z