Compared to other groups, conservatives have least confidence in science

[rdean]

Compared to other groups, conservatives have least confidence in science

Examining other demographic trends, Gauchat noted that the only other group to see a significant decline over time is regular churchgoers. Crunching the data, he states, indicates that "The growing force of the religious right in the conservative movement is a chief factor contributing to conservatives’ distrust in science." This decline in trust occurred even among those who had college or graduate degrees, despite the fact that advanced education typically correlated with enhanced trust in science.

Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All Time Low - US News and World Report

Just 35 percent of conservatives said they had a "great deal of trust in science" in 2010, a 28 percent decline since 1974, when 48 percent of conservatives—about the same percentage as liberals—trusted science.

Science has been dependent on the government for funding since World War II. Does that arrangement change if we're electing more conservative politicians?"

Conservatives' trust in science has declined sharply - latimes.com

Chris Mooney, who wrote "The Republican War on Science," which Gauchat cites, agreed. "If you think of the reasons behind this as nature versus nurture, all this would be nurture, that it was the product of the conservative movement," he said. "I think being educated is a proxy for people paying attention to politics, and when they do, they tune in to Fox News and blogs."

-----------------------------

Come on. Is it any wonder? I would like some of these conservatives to post links proving the opposite, but they can't and won't. There is a Republican "War on Science". It's real. It exists.

6% baby, 6%

 

[rdean]

http://towleroad.typepad.com/files/apr12asrfeature.pdf

An interesting read.

 

[techieny]

that is the most absurd argument to date. Have you tried knitting ?

 

[Ernie S.]

Have you considered that Conservatives lost trust in science due to climategate and what they see as an attempt to destroy the economy in the name of the pseudoscience of AGW?
Or are you just stupid?
Sorry, forgot who I was talking to.

 

[Peach]

As there are constant developments, perhaps conservatives are aware of changes, thus disregard standard beliefs?*

*Trying to make sense of this thread is difficult................................

 

[Ernie S.]

As there are constant developments, perhaps conservatives are aware of changes, thus disregard standard beliefs?*

*Trying to make sense of this thread is difficult................................

Typical of Dweebs rantings.

 

[Old Rocks]

So here we are, a meteorologist stating what he sees. And stating how out of touch with real science so many of his fellow Republicans are.

Paul Douglas: A Message From a Republican Meteorologist on Climate Change

"My climate epiphany wasn't overnight, and it had nothing to do with Al Gore."

I'm going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real. I'm a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment and sound science. I am not a climate scientist. I'm a Penn State meteorologist, and the weather maps I'm staring at are making me very uncomfortable. No, you're not imagining it: we've clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters I'm in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up. It's ironic. The root of the word conservative is "conserve". A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly "global warming alarmists" are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.

 

[Political Junky]

Compared to other groups, conservatives have least confidence in science

Examining other demographic trends, Gauchat noted that the only other group to see a significant decline over time is regular churchgoers. Crunching the data, he states, indicates that "The growing force of the religious right in the conservative movement is a chief factor contributing to conservatives’ distrust in science." This decline in trust occurred even among those who had college or graduate degrees, despite the fact that advanced education typically correlated with enhanced trust in science.

Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All Time Low - US News and World Report

Just 35 percent of conservatives said they had a "great deal of trust in science" in 2010, a 28 percent decline since 1974, when 48 percent of conservatives—about the same percentage as liberals—trusted science.

Science has been dependent on the government for funding since World War II. Does that arrangement change if we're electing more conservative politicians?"

Conservatives' trust in science has declined sharply - latimes.com

Chris Mooney, who wrote "The Republican War on Science," which Gauchat cites, agreed. "If you think of the reasons behind this as nature versus nurture, all this would be nurture, that it was the product of the conservative movement," he said. "I think being educated is a proxy for people paying attention to politics, and when they do, they tune in to Fox News and blogs."

-----------------------------

Come on. Is it any wonder? I would like some of these conservatives to post links proving the opposite, but they can't and won't. There is a Republican "War on Science". It's real. It exists.

6% baby, 6%

Just one more instance of how much the GOP has changed...pity.

 

[Immanuel]

Have you by any chance considered the idea that it is not science that conservatives distrust but rather the psuedo-scientist we have today that people don't trust?

It seems pretty clear to me that the scientists that have been in the news lately have been bought by politicians like Al Gore. Why should I trust them?

Immie

 

[ScienceRocks]

Presidents like Carter and Obama both gutted the hell out of Nasa. After a dozen plus times on the moon we haven't been back in 40 fucking years...Tell me what you have to do to be anti-science? Republicans support space exploration and science. Democrats support turning this country into a third world shit hole.

 

[Oddball]

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Compared to other groups, conservatives have least confidence in science

Examining other demographic trends, Gauchat noted that the only other group to see a significant decline over time is regular churchgoers. Crunching the data, he states, indicates that "The growing force of the religious right in the conservative movement is a chief factor contributing to conservatives’ distrust in science." This decline in trust occurred even among those who had college or graduate degrees, despite the fact that advanced education typically correlated with enhanced trust in science.

Study: Conservatives' Trust of Science Hits All Time Low - US News and World Report

Just 35 percent of conservatives said they had a "great deal of trust in science" in 2010, a 28 percent decline since 1974, when 48 percent of conservatives—about the same percentage as liberals—trusted science.

Science has been dependent on the government for funding since World War II. Does that arrangement change if we're electing more conservative politicians?"

Conservatives' trust in science has declined sharply - latimes.com

Chris Mooney, who wrote "The Republican War on Science," which Gauchat cites, agreed. "If you think of the reasons behind this as nature versus nurture, all this would be nurture, that it was the product of the conservative movement," he said. "I think being educated is a proxy for people paying attention to politics, and when they do, they tune in to Fox News and blogs."

-----------------------------

Come on. Is it any wonder? I would like some of these conservatives to post links proving the opposite, but they can't and won't. There is a Republican "War on Science". It's real. It exists.

6% baby, 6%

Wrong again, don't you ever get tired of it?

The specific question asked was "I am going to name some institutions in this country. Some people have complete confidence in the people running these institutions. Suppose these people are at one end of the scale at point number 1. Other people have no confidence at all in teh people running these institutions. Suppose these people are at the other end, at point 7. Where would you place yourself on this scale for: k. Scientific community?

http://sda.berkeley.edu/cgi-bin/hsda3

Does anyone remember when liberals thought that questioning the man was a good thing?

In other words, asshole, conservatives don't trust the people running the institutions. They weren't actually asked about the science.

 

[Quantum Windbag]

So here we are, a meteorologist stating what he sees. And stating how out of touch with real science so many of his fellow Republicans are.

Paul Douglas: A Message From a Republican Meteorologist on Climate Change

"My climate epiphany wasn't overnight, and it had nothing to do with Al Gore."

I'm going to tell you something that my Republican friends are loath to admit out loud: climate change is real. I'm a moderate Republican, fiscally conservative; a fan of small government, accountability, self-empowerment and sound science. I am not a climate scientist. I'm a Penn State meteorologist, and the weather maps I'm staring at are making me very uncomfortable. No, you're not imagining it: we've clicked into a new and almost foreign weather pattern. To complicate matters I'm in a small, frustrated and endangered minority: a Republican deeply concerned about the environmental sacrifices some are asking us to make to keep our economy powered-up. It's ironic. The root of the word conservative is "conserve". A staunch Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, set aside vast swaths of America for our National Parks System, the envy of the world. Another Republican, Richard Nixon, launched the EPA. Now some in my party believe the EPA and all those silly "global warming alarmists" are going to get in the way of drilling and mining our way to prosperity. Well, we have good reason to be alarmed.

I see your weatherman and raise you a physicist.

It is easy to be confused about climate, because we are constantly being warned about the horrible things that will happen or are already happening as a result of mankind's use of fossil fuels. But these ominous predictions are based on computer models. It is important to distinguish between what the climate is actually doing and what computer models predict. The observed response of the climate to more CO2 is not in good agreement with model predictions.
We need high-quality climate science because of the importance of climate to mankind. But we should also remember the description of how science works by the late, great physicist, Richard Feynman:
"In general we look for a new law by the following process. First we guess it. Then we compute the consequences of the guess to see what would be implied if this law that we guessed is right. Then we compare the result of the computation to nature, with experiment or experience; compare it directly with observation, to see if it works. If it disagrees with experiment it is wrong."
The most important component of climate science is careful, long-term observations of climate-related phenomena, from space, from land, and in the oceans. If observations do not support code predictions—like more extreme weather, or rapidly rising global temperatures—Feynman has told us what conclusions to draw about the theory.

William Happer: Global Warming Models Are Wrong Again - WSJ.com

 

[Quantum Windbag]

Have you by any chance considered the idea that it is not science that conservatives distrust but rather the psuedo-scientist we have today that people don't trust?

It seems pretty clear to me that the scientists that have been in the news lately have been bought by politicians like Al Gore. Why should I trust them?

Immie

That is actually what the survey says.

 

[bigrebnc1775]

Not science, just the people releasing the information.

 

[IanC]

Have you considered that Conservatives lost trust in science due to climategate and what they see as an attempt to destroy the economy in the name of the pseudoscience of AGW?
Or are you just stupid?
Sorry, forgot who I was talking to.

exactly. how could any thinking person not be somewhat disillusioned by the poor practices demonstrated by many climate scientists in the past decade. and more importantly by the scientists in other fields that have not come down strongly to make them clean up their act.

 

[Si modo]

Derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp .....................

 

[Skull Pilot]

It's not science I have an issue with. It's scientists and those who call themselves scientists.

They are all just people and all people can be swayed by money, power and prestige.

The fact that the government throws billions of dollars at scientists is a concern because scientists like anyone would want to keep receiving that money and none of them are completely unbiased.

 

[rdean]

"We don't hate science, we hate scientists".

You gotta admit it's pretty damn funny.

Thought it was especially hilarious that on another thread, a right winger tried to convince me a guy who had studied "computer science, television and writing fiction" is a fully qualified "scientist". The argument was "Albert Einstein didn't go to college". Is it any wonder right wingers don't trust science?

First, they don't know what a scientist is and second "it's too hard" and third, without any education (or even with) shimmering a man into being from a pile of dirt sounds just as "real" as say, a "black hole" or "evolution", especially if you refuse to look at the data or don't understand the concept.

 

[Si modo]

Hurppa derp, derp, derp, hurp, derp, derp, derpahurp hurp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp, derp .....................