What? You really Believe that!

[midcan5]

Why do we believe what we believe? We all like to think we are thinking when really we are just going into our heads and coming out with who we are. "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are.*" So enjoy these attempts to explain why you believe what you believe. (I still want to know a bit more deeply where knowledge comes from, but that's another post.)

"One study showed that not even Bush’s own words could change the minds of Bush voters who believed there was an Iraq-Al Qaeda link....As it turned out, not even Bush’s own words could change the minds of these Bush voters—just 1 of the 49 partisans who originally believed the Iraq-Al Qaeda claim changed his or her mind. Far more common was resisting the correction in a variety of ways, either by coming up with counterarguments or by simply being unmovable:" ( interview comments in link below)

"In certain conservative communities, explains Yale’s Kahan, “People who say, ‘I think there’s something to climate change,’ that’s going to mark them out as a certain kind of person, and their life is going to go less well."" (from link)

"Head-on attempts to persuade can sometimes trigger a backfire effect, where people not only fail to change their minds when confronted with the facts—they may hold their wrong views more tenaciously than ever." (from link)


"In other words, when we think we’re reasoning, we may instead be rationalizing. Or to use an analogy offered by University of Virginia psychologist Jonathan Haidt: We may think we’re being scientists, but we’re actually being lawyers. Our “reasoning” is a means to a predetermined end—winning our "case" — and is shot through with biases. They include "confirmation bias," in which we give greater heed to evidence and arguments that bolster our beliefs, and “disconfirmation bias,” in which we expend disproportionate energy trying to debunk or refute views and arguments that we find uncongenial."

[..]

"Okay, so people gravitate toward information that confirms what they believe, and they select sources that deliver it. Same as it ever was, right? Maybe, but the problem is arguably growing more acute...."

https://medium.com/editors-picks/adfa0d026a7e

http://www.motherjones.com/files/descartes.pdf
http://digitalcommons.law.yale.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1095&context=fss_papers


"It all raises the question: Do left and right differ in any meaningful way when it comes to biases in processing information, or are we all equally susceptible?

There are some clear differences. Science denial today is considerably more prominent on the political right—once you survey climate and related environmental issues, anti-evolutionism, attacks on reproductive health science by the Christian right, and stem-cell and biomedical matters. More tellingly, anti-vaccine positions are virtually nonexistent among Democratic officeholders today—whereas anti-climate-science views are becoming monolithic among Republican elected officials."


"You can follow the logic to its conclusion: Conservatives are more likely to embrace climate science if it comes to them via a business or religious leader, who can set the issue in the context of different values than those from which environmentalists or scientists often argue. Doing so is, effectively, to signal a détente in what Kahan has called a “culture war of fact.” In other words, paradoxically, you don’t lead with the facts in order to convince. You lead with the values—so as to give the facts a fighting chance."


* Anais Nin

 

[jwoodie]

I think; therefor I am , I think.

 

[peach174]

Why do you think that Conservatives deny science, when they don't?
You are the one who will not believe, that questioning science theories is not denying science.
Most Conservatives believe in climate change but question whether it is man causing it or if it is natural.
Conservatives believe it is natural because they take into account that quite a few of our planets in our solar system, also are having climate changes.
Conservatives ask, why are so many planets in our solar system, climates changing? It's not just Earths.

Many liberals are only focusing on Earth's climate only and they are accepting what the paid scientists by their governments are saying. When you get grants paid by the government, they are going to be biased from the start, by looking for what the government wants to hear.
So you actually think that if you get a grant from the Feds and that the conclusions are against the Feds view that you will receive that grant money the next year? No you will not get that grant the nest year.

It is the Liberals who are denying the big picture of what is really going on with the climate changes in our whole solar system.

Conservatives lead with all of the facts and include values.

It is a majority of liberals who deny facts and lead first with ideology.

Also, not all Conservatives are Republican, but this is something that many on the left seem to deny, especially the lefties in congress.

 

[PoliticalChic]

I think; therefor I am , I think.

Aristotle, Plato and Descartes are on a plane. The flight attendant comes by to take their drink orders. She asks Aristotle if he'd like a beverage. Aristotle says, "I'll have a ginger ale."
"And how about you, Mr. Plato?"
Plato says "Diet Coke, please."
She says, "and Mr. Descartes, anything to drink for you?"
Descartes says, "I think not," and disappears.

 

[jwoodie]

I think; therefor I am , I think.

Aristotle, Plato and Descartes are on a plane. The flight attendant comes by to take their drink orders. She asks Aristotle if he'd like a beverage. Aristotle says, "I'll have a ginger ale."
"And how about you, Mr. Plato?"
Plato says "Diet Coke, please."
She says, "and Mr. Descartes, anything to drink for you?"
Descartes says, "I think not," and disappears.

LOL, good one.

 

[Old Rocks]

]Why do you think that Conservatives deny science, when they don't?[/COLOR]You are the one who will not believe, that questioning science theories is not denying science.
Most Conservatives believe in climate change but question whether it is man causing it or if it is natural.
Conservatives believe it is natural because they take into account that quite a few of our planets in our solar system, also are having climate changes.
Conservatives ask, why are so many planets in our solar system, climates changing? It's not just Earths.

Many liberals are only focusing on Earth's climate only and they are accepting what the paid scientists by their governments are saying. When you get grants paid by the government, they are going to be biased from the start, by looking for what the government wants to hear.
So you actually think that if you get a grant from the Feds and that the conclusions are against the Feds view that you will receive that grant money the next year? No you will not get that grant the nest year.

It is the Liberals who are denying the big picture of what is really going on with the climate changes in our whole solar system.

Conservatives lead with all of the facts and include values.

It is a majority of liberals who deny facts and lead first with ideology.

Also, not all Conservatives are Republican, but this is something that many on the left seem to deny, especially the lefties in congress.

Damn, you are full of it. No, the 'Conservatives' have been denying the effects of GHG's since I have been alive. And today, with the evidence from nearly two hundred years of science on this subject, their denial is simply politics and totally against science.

Were this not so, why then do all the world Scientific Societies state in their policy statements that AGW is real? As do all the National Academies of Science, including that of Suadi Arabia, and allso, all major universities.

 

[midcan5]

Why do you think that Conservatives deny science, when they don't?
You are the one who will not believe, that questioning science theories is not denying science....

Not deny but simply not accept the finding of science when they conflict with their cognitive biases. Pew Research Center reports that only 6 percent of scientists identified as Republican and only 9 percent identified as conservatives.

Section 4: Scientists, Politics and Religion | Pew Research Center for the People and the Press

"The scientists’ belief that the scientific community is politically liberal is largely accurate. Slightly more than half of scientists (52%) describe their own political views as liberal, including 14% who describe themselves as very liberal. Among the general public, 20% describe themselves as liberal, with just 5% calling themselves very liberal.'