The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science

In the paper

“Table 4 shows that the bivariate correlations between each of the worldview predictors (free market and conservatism latent variables) and the acceptance of vaccinations were in opposing directions but numerically small and non-significant.”

In the paper

“In the present instance, we find that much of the suppressor effect arises from the fact that conservatism and free-market worldview are substantially and positively correlated with each other () but opposingly (positively vs. negatively, respectively) associated with vaccinations.”

In the paper

“Figure 2 shows that the link was numerically strongest for vaccinations but also significant for GM foods and climate science.”

In the paper

“The convenience conspiracies were endorsed (i.e., ratings above “Neutral”) by 200, 147, and 104 respondents (out of 1001), for Climate-Change-Hoax (CYClimChange), Tobacco-Lung Cancer-Hoax (CYTobacco), and HIV-AIDS-Conspiracy (CYAIDS), respectively.”

In the paper

“The additional model without free-market endorsement (Model 3) fit adequately, , CFI, TLI = , RMSEA; 90% CI: , SRMR = , AIC = , with the strength of the link between conservatism and rejection of climate science rising to . The link between conservatism and vaccination, by contrast, was no longer significant, .”

In the paper

“The additional model without conservatism (Model 2) also fit very well, , CFI, TLI = , RMSEA; 90% CI: , SRMR = , AIC = , with the strength of the link between free-market endorsement and rejection of climate science rising to . The link between free-market endorsement and rejection of vaccination declined in magnitude, , but retained its significance ().”

In the paper

“Conservatism and free-market endorsement were correlated but distinct constructs (Model 1 in Figure 2), each of which contributed a substantial share of variance to the rejection of climate science.”

In the paper

“Our main SEM model showed a negative association between conspiracy theorizing and conservatism (as well as with free-market endorsement)”

In the paper

“When free-market worldviews are parceled out (and only then), people on the political left were less likely to endorse childhood vaccinations than people on the political right.”

In the paper

“The only exception was the conservatism construct which included two correlated error terms.”

In the paper

“Likewise, analyses of YouTube videos critical of HPV vaccinations [28] and anti-vaccination blogs [29] have revealed widespread conspiratorial content.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [28] R Briones, 2012, When vaccines go viral: An analysis of HPV vaccine coverage on YouTube, Health Communication source
• Not checked yetcites [29] RK Zimmerman, 2005, Vaccine criticism on the world wide web, Journal of Medical Internet Research source

In the paper

“Denial of the link between HIV and AIDS frequently involves conspiracist hypotheses, for example that AIDS was created by the U.S. Government [22]–[24].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [22]–[24]

In the paper

“The apparent departure from normality of the conspiracist ideation indicator is considered during the SEM modeling via boot-strapping of confidence intervals for the parameter estimates.”

In the paper

“Polarization is particularly pronounced with respect to climate change: People who embrace a laissez-faire vision of the free market are less likely to accept that anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet than people with an egalitarian-communitarian outlook [2]–[7].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [2]–[7]

In the paper

“All items other than those targeting GM foods and vaccinations were used in previous research (see Materials for details) and have a track record of construct validity.”

In the paper

“Although media reports have implicated the political Left in the opposition to GM foods [10], [11], European surveys have variously associated GM-food rejection with the extreme political Right [12] as well as the political Left [13].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [10] Kloor K (2012). GMO opponents are the climate skeptics of the left. Available: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/are_gmo_foods_safe_opponents_are_skewing_the_science_to_scare_people_.html. Accessed 2012 Sep 29.
• Not checked yetcites [11] ShermerM (2013). The liberals' war on science. Available: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-liberals-war-on-science. Accessed 2013 Jan 28.

In the paper

“Media reports have ascribed an anti-vaccine stance to the political Left [14], largely based on the political leanings of spokespersons.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [14] Mooney C (2011). The science of why we don't believe science. Available: http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney).2011 Dec 21.

In the paper

“The bootstrapped confidence intervals for the model in Figure 2 did not materially alter any of the conclusions: All regression weights reported in the figure retained their significance, with the exception of the link between conservatism and acceptance of vaccinations, which failed to reach conventional significance levels ().”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [36] GW Cheung, 2008, Testing mediation and suppression effects of latent variables: Bootstrapping with structural equation models, Organizational Research Methods source

In the paper

“Popular books critical of climate science routinely refer to global warming as a “conspiracy” or “hoax” [25], and conspiracist themes have been identified in climate media coverage [26] and in people's affective imagery evoked by climate change [21].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [25] Inhofe J (2012) The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. Washington, DC: WND Books.
• Not checked yetcites [26] E McKewon, 2012, Duelling realities: Conspiracy theories vs climate science in regional newspaper coverage of Ian Plimer's book, Heaven and Earth, Rural Society source
• Not checked yetcites [21] N Smith, 2012, The rise of global warming skepticism: Exploring affective image associations in the United States over time, Risk Analysis source

In the paper

“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].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] S Lewandowsky, 2013, NASA faked the moon landing—therefore (climate) science is a hoax: An anatomy of the motivated rejection of science, Psychological Science source

In the paper

“Free-market worldviews are an important predictor of the rejection of scientific findings that have potential regulatory implications, such as climate science, but not necessarily of other scientific issues.”

In the paper

“The different polarity of those associations is consonant with the notion that libertarians object to the government intrusion arising from mandatory vaccination programs [15], whereas people low on conservatism—who, by implication, are liberal or progressive—may oppose immunization because they distrust pharmaceutical companies [40].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [15] DM Kahan, 2010, Who fears the HPV vaccine, who doesnt, and why? An experimental study of the mechanisms of cultural cognition, Law and Human Behavior source
• Not checked yetcites [40] JA Cassell, 2006, Is the cultural context of mmr rejection a key to an effective public health discourse?, Public Health source

In the paper

“conspiracy theories rely on isolated morsels of evidence inconsistent with an official account [31] (e.g., that Timothy McVeigh fled the Oklahoma City bombing in a car without licence plates) while ignoring overwhelming evidence to the contrary”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [31] BL Keeley, 1999, Of conspiracy theories, The Journal of Philosophy source

In the paper

“The reverse association has also been found, whereby conspiratorial belief was linked to right-wing authoritarianism [52]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [52] V Swami, 2012, Social psychological origins of conspiracy theories: the case of the Jewish conspiracy theory in Malaysia, Frontiers in Psychology source

In the paper

“Recent research has shown that the role of worldview may be attenuated by underscoring the breadth of consensus among scientists: When people are informed of the pervasive consensus about the fundamentals of climate change, they become more likely to endorse the basic premise of global warming, and they attribute a larger share of the observed warming trend to human CO2 emissions [37], [38].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [37] D Ding, 2011, Support for climate policy and societal action are linked to perceptions about scientific agreement, Nature Climate Change source
• Not checked yetcites [38] S Lewandowsky, 2013, The pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science, Nature Climate Change source

In the paper

“According to the system justification view, scientific findings are rejected by people high in system justification when the evidence challenges the status quo [42], rather than on”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [42] I Feygina, 2010, System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of “system-sanctioned change”, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin source

In the paper

“For the other two scientific propositions, the role of worldview was attenuated and more nuanced, or absent altogether.”

In the paper

“Opposition to vaccinations involved a balance between two opposing forces, namely a negative association with free-market endorsement and a compensatory positive association with conservatism.”

In the paper

“endorsement of conspiracy theories is also associated with people's own willingness to engage in a conspiracy themselves when deemed necessary [46]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [46] KM Douglas, 2011, Does it take one to know one? Endorsement of conspiracy theories is influenced by personal willingness to conspire, British Journal of Social Psychology source

In the paper

“the simultaneous belief in mutually contradictory theories—e.g., that Princess Diana was murdered but faked her own death—is a notable aspect of conspiracist ideation [30]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [30] MJ Wood, 2012, Dead and alive: Beliefs in contradictory conspiracy theories, Social Psychological and Personality Science source

In the paper

“suggesting that conspiratorial thinking is more prevalent on the political left than the right”

In the paper

“arguments against mainstream climate science are often mutually contradictory, as noted in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's response to comments on its endangerment finding pertaining to greenhouse gases [48]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [48] EPA (2009) Endangerment and cause or contribute findings for greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the clean air act: EPAs response to public comments. Technical report, U. S. Environmental Protection Agency, Washington, D.C.

In the paper

“anti-vaccination activists ignore overwhelming statistical evidence while focusing on anecdotes or information that has been shown to be false [49]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [49] RA Jacobson, 2007, A taxonomy of reasoning flaws in the anti-vaccine movement, Vaccine source

In the paper

“Age turned out not to correlate with any of the indicator variables”

In the paper

“A further 3 items queried scientific propositions that were also used in previous research [27], [38].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [27] S Lewandowsky, 2013, NASA faked the moon landing—therefore (climate) science is a hoax: An anatomy of the motivated rejection of science, Psychological Science source
• Not checked yetcites [38] S Lewandowsky, 2013, The pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science, Nature Climate Change source

In the paper

“These general and robust findings help identify communicative means by which the motivated reasoning can be attenuated or circumvented [5], [32], [38], [50].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [5] DM Kahan, 2010, Fixing the communications failure, Nature source
• Not checked yetcites [32] CR Sunstein, 2009, Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures, Journal of Political Philosophy source
• Not checked yetcites [38] S Lewandowsky, 2013, The pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science, Nature Climate Change source

In the paper

“although our sample was representative, it may not have included a sufficiently large number of participants at the extreme end of the ideological spectrum.”

In the paper

“Knowledge of its involvement is crucial to permit scientists and communicators to respond appropriately to the rejection of evidence by segments of the public.”

In the paper

“Only participants who completed all items and passed the attention-filter question were retained for analysis.”

In the paper

“A more accurate estimator free of those assumptions is [69], [70], which was used here.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [69] E Komaroff, 1997, Effect of simultaneous violations of essential tau-equivalence and uncorrelated error on coefficient alpha, Applied Psychological Measurement source
• Not checked yetcites [70] T Raykov, 1997, Estimation of composite reliability for congeneric measures, Applied Psychological Measurement source

In the paper

“climate science is primarily rejected by people on the political right because they tend to be particularly concerned with system justification and hence respond to the threat to the economic status quo that might arise from climate mitigation efforts.”

In the paper

“As latent variables are free of measurement error, none of the estimated effects are attenuated due to measurement error [60].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [60] DL Coffman, 2005, Using parcels to convert path analysis models into latent variable models, Multivariate Behavioral Research source

In the paper

“Participants were drawn from a completely bipartisan panel of more than 5.5 million U.S. residents (as of January 2013), via propensity weighting to ensure representativeness.”

In the paper

“Questions were presented blocked by topic area in two different orders that were randomly assigned to participants.”

In the paper

“Irrespective of their statistical association (or lack thereof), they both arguably represent mechanisms of motivated reasoning.”

In the paper

“although gender exhibited some small associations, its inclusion as a potential mediator in the SEM model (Figure 2) did not alter the outcome”

In the paper

“Cronbach's assumes essential -equivalence and independent error variances [68]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [68] Lord FM, Novick MR (1968) Statistical theories of mental test scores. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley

In the paper

“It is therefore possible that small specific groups on the political left do indeed reject certain scientific findings—such as GM foods or vaccinations—as is suggested by the public rhetoric of spokespersons that are identified as “left-wing” [10], [11].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [10] Kloor K (2012). GMO opponents are the climate skeptics of the left. Available: http://www.slate.com/articles/health_and_science/science/2012/09/are_gmo_foods_safe_opponents_are_skewing_the_science_to_scare_people_.html. Accessed 2012 Sep 29.
• Not checked yetcites [11] ShermerM (2013). The liberals' war on science. Available: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-liberals-war-on-science. Accessed 2013 Jan 28.

In the paper

“GM foods are not rejected based on ideology because they do not imperil the economic status quo, thereby eliminating system justification as a driving variable for rejection.”

In the paper

“One criticism of item parceling is that it may obscure multi-dimensionality [63].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [63] TD Little, 2002, To parcel or not to parcel: Exploring the question, weighing the merits, Structural Equation Modeling source

In the paper

“The potential predictor constructs were all based on established instruments that have been repeatedly used in previous research”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [4] Y Heath, 2006, Free-market ideology and environmental degradation: The case of belief in global climate change, Environment and Behavior source
• Not checked yetcites [59] A Mehrabian, 1996, Relations among political attitudes, personality, and psychopathology assessed with new measures of Libertarianism and Conservatism, Basic and Applied Social Psychology source
• Not checked yetcites [27] S Lewandowsky, 2013, NASA faked the moon landing—therefore (climate) science is a hoax: An anatomy of the motivated rejection of science, Psychological Science source