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

In the paper

“The relationship between worldviews and attitudes towards vaccinations was more complex, with free-market endorsement predicting rejection and conservatism predicting acceptance of vaccinations, respectively.”

• Also stated in: § Worldviews and acceptance of science · plain

  “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

“The correlations confirm that rejection of scientific propositions is often accompanied by endorsement of scientific conspiracies pertinent to the proposition being rejected.”

In the paper

“The weights involving conspiracist ideation remained virtually unchanged in these two additional models (Models 2 and 3).”

In the paper

“Figure 2 shows the overall SEM (Model 1) which fit very well (, , CFI , TLI = , RMSEA = ; 90% CI: , SRMR = , AIC = ) based on conventional standards (CFI and TLI .95 and RMSEA and SRMR .06; [33]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Lt Hu, 1999, Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives, Structural Equation Modeling source

In the paper

“The two worldview variables do not predict opposition to GM.”

• Also stated in: § Modeling of science acceptance · plain

  “Acceptance of GM foods, by contrast, was not associated with people's worldviews (weights set to zero without significant loss of fit; , ).”

• Also stated in: § Worldviews and acceptance of science · plain

  “Finally, opposition to GM foods was not associated with the worldview constructs.”

In the paper

“We conducted a propensity weighted internet-panel survey of the U.S. population and show that conservatism and free-market worldview strongly predict rejection of climate science, in contrast to their weaker and opposing effects on acceptance of vaccinations.”

• Also stated in: § Modeling of science acceptance · boosted

  “Not unexpectedly, free-market endorsement and conservatism together strongly predicted rejection of climate science, with standardized weights of and , respectively.”

In the paper

“The relationship between worldviews and attitudes towards vaccinations was more complex, with free-market endorsement predicting rejection and conservatism predicting acceptance of vaccinations, respectively.”

• Also stated in: § Worldviews and acceptance of science · plain

  “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

“Conspiracist ideation, by contrast, predicts rejection of all three scientific propositions, albeit to greatly varying extents.”

• Also stated in: § Methodology/Principal findings · plain

  “Greater endorsement of a diverse set of conspiracy theories predicts opposition to GM foods, vaccinations, and climate science.”

• Also stated in: § Modeling of science acceptance · plain

  “In contrast to the clearly differentiated effects of worldview, conspiracist ideation predicted rejection of all three scientific issues, albeit to quite varying extents.”

In the paper

“When considered in isolation, each worldview construct on its own strongly predicted rejection of climate science (Models 2 and 3), replicating much previous research and underscoring a formidable challenge to science communicators [2]–[4], [6], [7], [27].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [2]–[4]
• Not checked yetcites [6] DM Kahan, 2011, Cultural cognition of scientific consensus, Journal of Risk Research source
• Not checked yetcites [7] AM McCright, 2011, Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States, Global Environmental Change source

In the paper

“it was entirely absent for GM foods”

In the paper

“the pairwise negative correlations between the “convenience” theories (CYClimChange), CYTobacco, and CYAIDS) and the corresponding scientific propositions”

In the paper

“with CYClimChange explaining a third of the variance in the acceptance of climate science”

In the paper

“The involvement of worldview in vaccinations was arguably small”

In the paper

“although a free-market worldview is a powerful predictor of the rejection of scientific findings that have regulatory implications such as climate science, we found its effect to be far from general”

In the paper

“Unlike worldview, conspiracist ideation predicted rejection of all scientific propositions, albeit to varying extents.”

In the paper

“the lowest observed correlation between factor scores and composite scores in this study was across all latent variables.”

In the paper

“All six latent variables exhibited an essentially unidimensional structure (Table 5).”

In the paper

“In nearly all cases the addition of 1 correlated error term to the single-factor model was sufficient for a very respectable fit (CFI .95 and SRMR .06; [33]).”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [33] Lt Hu, 1999, Cutoff criteria for fit indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives, Structural Equation Modeling source

In the paper

“Further analysis revealed that the low bivariate correlations combined with greater weights in the SEM likely reflected a suppressor effect [34], [35].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [34] DP MacKinnon, 2000, Equivalence of the mediation, confounding and suppression effect, Prevention Science source
• Not checked yetcites [35] DL Paulhus, 2004, Two replicable suppressor situations in personality research, Multivariate Behavioral Research source

In the paper

“Second, a striking feature of the opposition to climate science is that worldview-driven polarization often increases with greater levels of education [3] and greater science literacy [17], suggesting that the opposition reflects a cognitive style rather than a deficit of knowledge or ability.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [3] LC Hamilton, 2011, Education, politics and opinions about climate change evidence for interaction effects, Climatic Change source
• Not checked yetcites [17] DM Kahan, 2012, The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks, Nature Climate Change source

In the paper

“Thus, when that criterion-irrelevant variance for each predictor is suppressed by the other predictor (as accomplished within the SEM model), the full strength of each predictor is revealed.”

In the paper

“There are also growing indications that rejection of science is suffused by conspiracist ideation, that is the general tendency to endorse conspiracy theories including the specific beliefs that inconvenient scientific findings constitute a “hoax.””

• Also stated in: § Introduction · boosted

  “One cognitive style that has been repeatedly implicated in science denial is conspiratorial thinking [18]–[21], also known as conspiracist ideation.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18]–[21]

In the paper

“Second, a striking feature of the opposition to climate science is that worldview-driven polarization often increases with greater levels of education [3] and greater science literacy [17], suggesting that the opposition reflects a cognitive style rather than a deficit of knowledge or ability.”

In the paper

“Those cognitive attributes render conspiracist ideation ideally suited for the ongoing rejection of scientific evidence.”

In the paper

“Among American Conservatives, but not Liberals, trust in science has been declining since the 1970's.”

• Also stated in: § Introduction · plain

  “Since the 1970's, Conservatives—unlike Liberals or Moderates—have become increasingly skeptical and distrustful of science [1].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [1] G Gauchat, 2012, Politicization of science in the public sphere: A study of public trust in the United States, 1974 to 2010, American Sociological Review source

In the paper

“In consequence, the bivariate correlations with vaccinations are low (cf. Table 4) because, as far as each predictor on its own is concerned, the large shared variance between free-market and conservatism is “nuisance” variance—that is, variance that is irrelevant to the prediction of vaccination acceptance.”

In the paper

“Conspiracist ideation is also typically immune to falsification because contradictory evidence (e.g., climate scientists being exonerated of accusations) can be accommodated by broadening the scope of the conspiracy (exonerations are a whitewash), often with considerable creativity [32].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [32] CR Sunstein, 2009, Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures, Journal of Political Philosophy source

In the paper

“We have shown that people's political orientation and worldview can present strong obstacles to acceptance of scientific evidence, albeit to widely differing extents among the issues examined.”

In the paper

“Worldviews once again constituted an overpowering barrier to acceptance of climate science.”

In the paper

“Our results provide no evidence that this link holds in the American population at large.”

In the paper

“Our data suggest that this high level of trust in science among liberals extended to GM foods.”

In the paper

“several attributes of the cognition underlying conspiracist ideation run counter to conventional scientific thinking”

In the paper

“We therefore do not find much evidence for the view that the motivated rejection of scientific findings is symmetrical on both the political Left and the Right, such that liberals reject GM foods because their close association with multinational corporations challenges their values in the same way that the regulatory implications of climate science challenges conservatives [11].”

What the sources say

• 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

“People who endorse one conspiracy are known to be likely to also endorse multiple others”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [44] T Goertzel, 1994, Belief in conspiracy theories, Political Psychology source
• Not checked yetcites [45] V Swami, 2009, Unanswered questions: A preliminary investigation of personality and individual difference predictors of 9/11 conspiracist beliefs, Applied Cognitive Psychology source

In the paper

“Such self-affirmation is known to facilitate the dislodging of attitudes in response to information that would otherwise be considered too threatening [51]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [51] DK Sherman, 2006, The psychology of self-defense: Self-affirmation theory, Advances In Experimental Social Psychology source

In the paper

“conspiracist ideation has been found to be associated with stable personality variables, such as a subset of the ‘Big Five’ [45] or paranoid ideation and schizotypy [47]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [45] V Swami, 2009, Unanswered questions: A preliminary investigation of personality and individual difference predictors of 9/11 conspiracist beliefs, Applied Cognitive Psychology source
• Not checked yetcites [47] H Darwin, 2011, Belief in conspiracy theories. the role of paranormal belief, paranoid ideation and schizotypy, Personality and Individual Differences source

In the paper

“providing additional scientific information may only amplify the rejection of such evidence, rather than foster its acceptance”

In the paper

“Instead, our results appear more congruent with a politically asymmetric view of the role of ideology in the rejection of science.”

In the paper

“the data provide further evidence for the link between the rejection of science and a conspiratorial cognitive style in general”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [18]–[20]
• 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

“This finding is consonant with the fact that among liberals trust in science has remained high and stable since the 1970s [1].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [1] G Gauchat, 2012, Politicization of science in the public sphere: A study of public trust in the United States, 1974 to 2010, American Sociological Review source

In the paper

“This experimental result meshes well with a detailed analysis of Republicans' opinions on climate change, which similarly revealed perceived consensus to be the strongest predictor of acceptance of climate science [39].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [39] Rolfe-Redding J, Maibach EW, Feldman L, Leiserowitz A (2012) Republicans and climate change: An audience analysis of predictors for belief and policy preferences. Technical report, Yale University and George Mason University, Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, New Haven, CT. source

In the paper

“The directional lability of the association with political views may arise because some specific conspiracies are favored among the political left (e.g., that 9/11 was “an inside job”) whereas others (e.g., that President Obama was not born in the United States) are favored among the political right [53]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [53] Nyhan B (2010) Why the “death panel” myth wouldn't die: Misinformation in the health care reform debate. The Forum <volume>8</volume>..

In the paper

“On this view, the driving psychological force that is underlying the rejection of science is “system justification” [42], [43]; that is, a person's need to perceive the current political and economic system as fair, legitimate, and stable.”

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
• Not checked yetcites [43] EP Hennes, 2012, Not all ideologies are created equal: Epistemic, existential, and relational needs predict system-justifying attitudes, Social Cognition source

In the paper

“evidence against conspiracy theories is often construed as evidence for them, because the evidence is interpreted as arising from the conspiracy in question”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [31] BL Keeley, 1999, Of conspiracy theories, The Journal of Philosophy source
• Not checked yetcites [32] CR Sunstein, 2009, Conspiracy theories: Causes and cures, Journal of Political Philosophy source

In the paper

“In one experimental study, underscoring the consensus was particularly effective for people whose worldview otherwise might have predisposed them towards rejection of climate science [38].”

What the sources say

• 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

“because system justification tends to be greater among conservatives than liberals [42]”

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

“SEM models with more than 20 indicator variables (i.e., items) are often too large to achieve adequate levels of model fit [62].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [62] PM Bentler, 1987, Practical issues in structural modeling, Sociological Methods & Research source

In the paper

“Depending on the balance of test items, different studies may thus yield associations with political orientation that are of different polarity.”

In the paper

“scientific findings are rejected by people high in system justification when the evidence challenges the status quo [42], rather than on the basis of ideology per se.”

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

“The estimation of internal consistency reliability of unequally weighted composite scores is more complicated and less well-established [67].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [67] S Penev, 2006, On the relationship between maximal validity and maximal reliability for linear composites, Multivariate Behavioral Research source

In the paper

“The prominence of conspiracist ideation in the rejection of science should therefore not be unexpected.”

In the paper

“Alternative methods of analysis, such as multiple regression based on composite scores with less than perfect reliability, yield results contaminated by measurement error which make their interpretation difficult [61].”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [61] Osborne JW, Waters E (2002) Four assumptions of multiple regression that researchers should always test. Practical Assessment, Research and Evaluation <volume>8</volume>..

In the paper

“the present study and related precedents [2]–[7], [18]–[21], [27] have identified worldviews and conspiracist ideation as two vehicles with which such motivated reasoning is exercised.”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [2]–[7]
• Not checked yetcites [18]–[21]
• 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

“when all of the items load positively and roughly equally onto the factor, as was the case in this instance, there are no practical benefits to using factor scores [66]”

What the sources say

• Not checked yetcites [66] Jensen AR (1998) The g factor: The science of mental ability. Westport, CT: Praeger