TY - JOUR
T1 - Not all skepticism is equal
T2 - Exploring the ideological antecedents of science acceptance and rejection
AU - Rutjens, Bastiaan T.
AU - Sutton, Robbie M.
AU - van der Lee, Romy
PY - 2018/3/1
Y1 - 2018/3/1
N2 - 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 moral purity concerns, best predicts vaccination skepticism. GM food skepticism is not fueled by religious or political ideology. Finally, religious conservatives consistently display a low faith in science and an unwillingness to support science. Thus, science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, depending on the topic of investigation.
AB - 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 moral purity concerns, best predicts vaccination skepticism. GM food skepticism is not fueled by religious or political ideology. Finally, religious conservatives consistently display a low faith in science and an unwillingness to support science. Thus, science acceptance and rejection have different ideological roots, depending on the topic of investigation.
KW - anti-science
KW - conservatism
KW - morality
KW - religion
KW - science
KW - science skepticism
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U2 - 10.1177/0146167217741314
DO - 10.1177/0146167217741314
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85041812985
SN - 0146-1672
VL - 44
SP - 384
EP - 405
JO - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
JF - Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin
IS - 3
ER -