Understanding people's beliefs

The scientific consensus on climate change: Still pivotal and more pervasive than ever Posted on 16 May 2013 by Stephan Lewandowsky

Science is debate. It’s a debate that takes place at conferences or in the peer-reviewed literature, and scientific debates contribute to the error-correction process that has served science and the public well for a century or more.

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Climate of Doubt Strategy #1: Deny the Consensus Posted on 6 November 2012 by Dana Nuccitelli

The PBS Frontline program Climate of Doubt did a masterful job in exposing the tactics climate denialists have used to delay meaningful action in reducing greenhouse gas emissions and addressing climate change in the USA.  Perhaps the #1 strategy they have pursued involves denying the scientific consensus on human-caused global warming.  As Myron Ebell of the right-wing think tank Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) put it,

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Getting to the Truth: Faith or Evidence? Posted on 23 February 2012 by Peter Boghossian

Peter Boghossian is an expert on critical thinking, and in this video lecture he explores the relative merits of faith and evidence as tools to understand 'the truth'.

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The Loud Fringe: Pluralistic Ignorance and Democracy Posted on 18 October 2011 by Stephan Lewandowsky

It appears self-evident that democracy functions best if its citizens share a common reality. There is common agreement that society stands to benefit from diversity of opinions, but most people also appear to agree that a society would suffer when segments of the population operate within a fictional social world that is disconnected from reality.

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Environmentalism: The Case for Radicalism Posted on 6 May 2011 by Clive Hamilton

The difficulty and importance of the global warming campaign is many times greater than every other environmental struggle. Controlling carbon pollution requires a wholesale industrial restructuring and defeat of the most powerful industry coalition ever assembled.

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Acceptance of Science and Ideology Posted on 28 April 2011 by Stephan Lewandowsky

President Barack Obama was born in Hawaii on August 4, 1961. Recent U.S. surveys reveal that only 1 in 3 Republicans accept this simple fact, notwithstanding the incontrovertible evidence provided by something as straightforward as a Hawaiian birth certificate. The remaining 2 out of 3 Republicans either believe that President Obama was born outside the United States (between 45% and 51%, depending on the particular poll) or they profess uncertainty about his place of birth.

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