NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science

Lewandowsky, Stephan; Oberauer, Klaus; Gignac, Gilles E.

doi:10.1177/0956797612457686

Cited by 639Climate Change Communication and PerceptionMisinformation and Its ImpactsScience and Science Education

NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science

Lewandowsky, Stephan, Oberauer, Klaus, Gignac, Gilles E.·2013·Psychological Science

DOI 10.1177/0956797612457686

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Abstract

Although nearly all domain experts agree that carbon dioxide emissions are altering the world’s climate, segments of the public remain unconvinced by the scientific evidence. Internet blogs have become a platform for denial of climate change, and bloggers have taken a prominent role in questioning climate science. We report a survey of climate-blog visitors to identify the variables underlying acceptance and rejection of climate science. Our findings parallel those of previous work and show that endorsement of free-market economics predicted rejection of climate science. Endorsement of free markets 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, above and beyond endorsement of free markets, endorsement of a cluster of conspiracy theories (e.g., that the Federal Bureau of Investigation killed Martin Luther King, Jr.) predicted rejection of climate science as well as other scientific findings. Our results provide empirical support for previous suggestions that conspiratorial thinking 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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Conspiracy theories can protect cherished beliefs by casting overwhelmingly disconfirmatory evidence as the product of a conspiracy.
“A related property of conspiracy theories is that they can protect cherished beliefs (e.g., vaccination is harmful; climate change is not a serious concern) by casting overwhelmingly disconfirmatory evidence (e.g., scientific findings) as the product of a conspiracy (Lewandowsky, Oberauer, & Gignac, 2013).”
From The Psychology of Conspiracy Theories (2017) · cites this paper as Lewandowsky, Oberauer, & Gignac, 2013
Beliefs in conspiracy theories in general are associated with a mistrust of scientific claims.
“because beliefs in conspiracy theories in general are associated with a mistrust of scientific claims [16]”
From The Effects of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Theories on Vaccination Intentions (2014) · cites this paper as [16]
Among visitors to climate blogs, the tendency to endorse conspiracy theories has been shown to be correlated with the rejection of climate science as well as the rejection of other scientific propositions.
“Among visitors to climate blogs, the tendency to endorse conspiracy theories has been shown to be correlated with the rejection of climate science as well as the rejection of other scientific propositions [27].”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [27]
The data provide further evidence for a link between rejection of science and a conspiratorial cognitive style in general.
“the data provide further evidence for the link between the rejection of science and a conspiratorial cognitive style in general”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [27]
A further 3 items queried scientific propositions that were also used in previous research.
“A further 3 items queried scientific propositions that were also used in previous research [27], [38].”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [27]

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Motivated rejection of science 1 Running head: MOTIVATED REJECTION OF SCIENCE NASA faked the moon landing—Therefore (Climate) Science is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science
Lewandowsky, S., Oberauer, K., Gignac, G. E., & Lewandowsky, S. (2013)
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Recurrent fury: Conspiratorial discourse in the blogosphere triggered by research on the role of conspiracist ideation in climate denialPreprint
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Conspiracy beliefs and science rejection
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Authors: Lewandowsky, S., Oberauer, K., & Gignac, G. E.
Affiliations: The University of Western Australia (AU)
ORCID: Lewandowsky, Stephan
Oberauer, Klaus
Gignac, Gilles E.
Venue: Psychological Science
Publisher: SAGE Publications
Published: 2013-03-26
Volume: 24
Issue: 5
Pages: 622-633
ISSN: 0956-7976 (ISSN-L)
1467-9280
DOI: 10.1177/0956797612457686
OpenAlex: W2148186201
Semantic Scholar: 3f3ad951efb5618f5b793f160714014645166e35
Cited by: 638
References: 57
Citations by year: 2026: 60 · 2025: 30 · 2024: 50 · 2023: 42 · 2022: 72 · 2021: 60 · 2020: 68 · 2019: 48 · 2018: 45 · 2017: 46 · 2016: 39 · 2015: 36 · 2014: 27 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 3
FWCI: 118.72
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: closed
Licence: journals.sagepub.com/page/policies/text-and-data-mining-license (tdm)
Locations: Psychological Science (publishedVersion)
PubMed (publishedVersion)
UWA Profiles and Research Repository (UWA) (submittedVersion)
Explore Bristol Research (submittedVersion)
Bristol Research (University of Bristol) (submittedVersion)
Zurich Open Repository and Archive (University of Zurich) (submittedVersion)
Topics: Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Misinformation and Its Impacts
Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Science and Science Education
Keywords: climate change denial, conspiracy theories, conspiracy beliefs, free market ideology, public acceptance of science, HIV/AIDS, smoking and lung cancer
MeSH terms: Denial, Psychological, Factor Analysis, Statistical, Fraud, Humans, Motivation, Surveys and Questionnaires, Science, Space Flight, United States, Moon, United States National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Climatic Processes, Blogging, Climate Change

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NASA Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax: An Anatomy of the Motivated Rejection of Science

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