Why do people hate science?

[Archae]

Especially if it contradicts a pet belief?

The science of why we reject science and what we can do about it

August 16, 2016 by Matthew Facciani

You’re able to read this right now because of science! From electricity, to antibiotics, to computers, science allows us to learn from the world and can greatly improve our quality of life. Unfortunately, science can also be hard to understand, which makes people vulnerable to believe harmful myths such as denying climate change, avoiding vaccines, and using homeopathy instead of medicine. It’s tempting to simply blame such misunderstandings on a not receiving a thorough education, but that is only part of the equation. Recent research has shown how people’s social identities can contribute to why they reject scientific evidence.

Social identities consist of values, norms, and roles that inform us how we act and gives order to a chaotic world. These social identities (such as being a Democrat or a Christian) are often internalized as someone’s own sense of self. The people we associate with often help form one’s social identity as well. When the identity is threatened, the person may feel personally attacked.

An identity could be threatened by being exposed to information that conflicts with a particular worldview. Thus, conflicting information can be seen as an actual attack on self-worth, which can make people engage their defensive biases. When we engage such defensive biases, people are likely to maintain or even strengthen their previously held beliefs despite being exposing to conflicting information. For example, a conservative whose identity makes them motivated to reject climate change may feel threatened when seeing a report about the existence of climate change, and then shut down. Likewise, a liberal whose identity makes them motivated to reject the safety of GMOs may make them shut down when reading information that shows GMOs are harmless. This phenomenon is called the “back-fire effect”.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/accordingtomatthew/2016/08/the-science-of-why-we-reject-science-and-what-we-can-do-about-it/?utm_source=SilverpopMailing&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Atheist%20081716%20(1)&utm_content=&spMailingID=52093437&spUserID=MTE4MTY1MzAzMTE5S0&spJobID=983336071&spReportId=OTgzMzM2MDcxS0