

The Science of Why We Don't Believe Science  - atakan_gurkan
http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/denial-science-chris-mooney

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jasonkester
I've never been to this website before, but reading the article it seems like
they have a chip on their shoulder about global warming:

 _"A MAN WITH A CONVICTION is a hard man to change. Tell him you disagree and
he turns away. Show him facts or figures and he questions your sources. Appeal
to logic and he fails to see your point." So wrote the celebrated Stanford
University psychologist Leon Festinger (PDF), in a passage that might have
been referring to climate change denial—the persistent rejection, on the part
of so many Americans today, of what we know about global warming and its human
causes._

That seems to be a strange example to use, since Climate Change can probably
be described as "The most contentious argument about a totally ambiguous data
set in the history of mankind". It polarizes people so strongly by nature of
the fact that the same data can reasonably be read to support either
conclusion. By grouping people who the author considers to be on the other
side of that issue with people who ruined their lives chasing aliens, it just
reads like they're trying to justify calling the opposition in their little
fight crazy.

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nhaehnle
Perhaps the main reason that the article uses that particular example is that
there is a striking difference between climate scientists and the general
population.

The general population thinks that there are contentious arguments about
climate change.

Climate scientists don't think so. Yes, there's always discussions about the
small details, but that's why they're scientists. There is no contention about
the big picture _among climate scientists_.

Then again, it is true that the article doesn't follow its own advice, which
is given at the very end: to avoid emotional confrontation, in order to give
the facts a fighting chance. If the author honestly wanted to convince
someone, it would have been much better to start of with less emotionally
charged topics, and then perhaps sneak in climate change towards the end.

