The global spread of antiscience beliefs, misinformation, fake news, and conspiracy theories is posing a threat to the well-being of individuals and societies worldwide. Accordingly, research on why people increasingly doubt science and endorse “alternative facts” is flourishing. Much of this work has focused on identifying cognitive biases and individual differences. Importantly, however, the reasons that lead people to question mainstream scientific findings and share misinformation are also inherently tied to social processes that emerge out of divisive commitments to group identities and worldviews. In this special issue, we focus on the important and thus far neglected role of group processes in motivating science skepticism. The articles that feature in this special issue cover three core areas: the group-based roots of antiscience attitudes; the intergroup dynamics between science and conspiratorial thinking; and finally, insights about science denial related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Across all articles, we highlight the role of worldviews, identities, norms, religion, and other inter- and intragroup processes that shape antiscientific attitudes. We hope that this collection will inspire future research endeavors that take a group processes approach to the social psychological study of science skepticism.

反科学信仰、错误信息、假新闻和阴谋论的全球传播正在对全世界个人和社会的福祉构成威胁。因此，关于为什么人们越来越怀疑科学并支持“另类事实”的研究正在蓬勃发展。这项工作的大部分内容都集中在识别认知偏差和个体差异上。然而，重要的是，导致人们质疑主流科学发现和分享错误信息的原因也与社会进程有着内在的联系，这些社会进程源于对群体身份和世界观的分歧承诺。在本期特刊中，我们关注群体过程在激发科学怀疑论方面的重要作用，但迄今为止被忽视。本期特刊的文章涵盖三个核心领域：反科学态度的群体根源；科学与阴谋思维之间的群体间动态；最后，关于与 COVID-19 大流行相关的科学否认的见解。在所有文章中，我们强调了世界观、身份、规范、宗教以及其他塑造反科学态度的群体间和群体内过程的作用。我们希望该系列能够激发未来的研究工作，即采用群体过程方法对科学怀疑论的社会心理学进行研究。