Has the scientific method lost all relevance to conservative Republicans in America? The question is not new. But now,
according to this editorial from Switzerland’s News,
a scientific study conducted by researchers at Yale University shows
that not only doesn’t the U.S. right put much stock in what is known as
‘scientific fact,’ but more educated Republicans are just as resistant
to the fruits of modern scientific research as their less-educated
associates.
The
editorial from Switzerland’s News says in part:
Chief investigator Dan Kahan interviewed some 1,540
randomly selected U.S. citizens. The amazing result is that facts on
specific scientific topics play no role when it comes to the more
conservative segments of American society.
Those who show such resistance to the facts, interestingly enough,
are not with low educational and social status. No – the more educated a
person is, the stronger and more irrational is their rejection of
scientifically-proven and peer-reviewed facts (conspiracy theories
involving thousands of scientists are frequently mentioned). One
cheerleader of the trend is ultra-conservative presidential candidate
Rick Santorum.
One commentator described the phenomenon highlighted in the study as
“smart idiots” – and this involves topics other than just climate
change. Technological risk, when reducing it would require restricting
individual freedom, is denied whenever it applies to conservative elites
– even if those risks are proven. And while it flies in the face of
intuition, this is true the higher and more comprehensive a person’s
education is. The survey results are unambiguous.
These so-called top-down individualists in America are served almost
exclusively by the pseudo-news channel FOX News, which acts as a kind of
“religious preaching” channel, amplifying and reinforcing the
ideologically-correct views of conservatives. That the study failed to
include the fact that religious values are more-or-less generally held
in high regard is unfortunate. But U.S. resistance to facts about
evolution, geology, astronomy, etc. by religiously-influenced people is
indeed legendary. So it is perhaps no coincidence that political
conservatism and religiosity often go hand-in-hand. But I digress.
READ ON IN ENGLISH OR GERMAN AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted
translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
