CowboysFromHell
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National Geographic article
Explains on-going debates by reasonable people over things that scientists generally agree on, like evolution, climate change, vaccines, GMOs, etc.
Explains on-going debates by reasonable people over things that scientists generally agree on, like evolution, climate change, vaccines, GMOs, etc.
The scientific method leads us to truths that are less than self-evident, often mind-blowing, and sometimes hard to swallow.
We have trouble digesting randomness; our brains crave pattern and meaning.
Even for scientists, the scientific method is a hard discipline. Like the rest of us, they're vulnerable to what they call confirmation bias - the tendency to look for and see only evidence that confirms what they already believe. But unlike the rest of us, they submit their ideas to formal peer review before publishing them. Once their results are published, if theyre important enough, other scientists will try to reproduce themand, being congenitally skeptical and competitive, will be very happy to announce that they dont hold up.
Americans fall into two basic camps, Kahan says. Those with a more egalitarian and communitarian mind-set are generally suspicious of industry and apt to think its up to something dangerous that calls for government regulation; theyre likely to see the risks of climate change. In contrast, people with a hierarchical and individualistic mind-set respect leaders of industry and dont like government interfering in their affairs; theyre apt to reject warnings about climate change, because they know what accepting them could lead tosome kind of tax or regulation to limit emissions.
In the U.S., climate change somehow has become a litmus test that identifies you as belonging to one or the other of these two antagonistic tribes. When we argue about it, Kahan says, were actually arguing about who we are, what our crowd is. Were thinking, People like us believe this. People like that do not believe this. For a hierarchical individualist, Kahan says, its not irrational to reject established climate science: Accepting it wouldnt change the world, but it might get him thrown out of his tribe.
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