Not All Skepticism Is Equal: Exploring the Ideological Antecedents of Science Acceptance and Rejection.

ABSTRACT: Many topics that scientists investigate speak to people's ideological worldviews. We report three studies-including an analysis of large-scale survey data-in which we systematically investigate the ideological antecedents of general faith in science and willingness to support science, as well as of science skepticism of climate change, vaccination, and genetic modification (GM). The main predictors are religiosity and political orientation, morality, and science understanding. Overall, science understanding is associated with vaccine and GM food acceptance, but not climate change acceptance. Importantly, different ideological predictors are related to the acceptance of different scientific findings. Political conservatism best predicts climate change skepticism. Religiosity, alongside mora

SUBMITTER: Rutjens BT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5810918 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature