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Cited by 260

The DOI matches its Crossref record; 20 of the 20 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.

Seepage: Climate change denial and its effect on the scientific community

Open access
Lewandowsky, Stephan, Oreskes, Naomi, Risbey, James S., Newell, Ben R., Smithson, Michael·2015·Global Environmental Change
DOI 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.02.013
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Abstract

Vested interests and political agents have long opposed political or regulatory action in response to climate change by appealing to scientific uncertainty. Here we examine the effect of such contrarian talking points on the scientific community itself. We show that although scientists are trained in dealing with uncertainty, there are several psychological reasons why scientists may nevertheless be susceptible to uncertainty-based argumentation, even when scientists recognize those arguments as false and are actively rebutting them. Specifically, we show that prolonged stereotype threat, pluralistic ignorance, and a form of projection (the third-person effect) may cause scientists to take positions that they would be less likely to take in the absence of outspoken public opposition. We illustrate the consequences of seepage from public debate into the scientific process with a case study involving the interpretation of temperature trends from the last 15 years. We offer ways in which the scientific community can detect and avoid such inadvertent seepage.

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Metadata

Authors
Lewandowsky, S., Oreskes, N., Risbey, J. S., Newell, B. R., & Smithson, M.
Venue
Global Environmental Change
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2015-07
Volume
33
Pages
1-13
ISSN
0959-3780 (ISSN-L)
DOI
10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.02.013
OpenAlex
W2147487625
Cited by
260
References
20
FWCI
111.84
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
hybrid

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CoChat. (2026). Citation check: Seepage: Climate change denial and its effect on the scientific community. https://app.cochat.ai/papers/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.02.013
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Lewandowsky, S., Oreskes, N., Risbey, J. S., Newell, B. R., & Smithson, M. (2015). Seepage: Climate change denial and its effect on the scientific community. Global Environmental Change. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2015.02.013

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