ABSTRACT

Despite scientific consensus, a partisan divide persists among Americans over the existence and causes of climate change. One body of research explains this divide by positing that individuals tend to uphold the expectations of their cultural groups in order to protect their social standing and community’s values. To determine whether such identity-protective thinking about scientific evidence can be countered when it impedes acceptance of scientific findings, we conducted an experiment to test the effects of analytic processing of a single graph capturing yearly global temperature trend data, with or without excerpts of either a NASA spokesperson or President Obama characterizing the same climate findings. The results indicate that climate-specific identity protection affects both liberals and conservatives but can be curtailed among both when they closely consider credible graphical climate data in a context invoking accuracy rather than partisan motivations.

摘要

尽管有科学共识，但美国人之间在气候变化的存在和原因方面仍存在分歧。一项研究通过假设个人倾向于维护其文化群体的期望来维护其社会地位和社区价值，从而解释了这种分歧。为了确定在阻止科学发现被接受时是否可以抵消这种有关科学证据的保护身份的思想，我们进行了一项实验，以测试捕获年度全球温度趋势数据的单个图形的分析处理的效果，该图形是否带有以下摘录美国宇航局发言人或奥巴马总统也有同样的气候发现。