Greater scientific literacy widens political polarization on contested science rather than narrowing it

Evidence

Dan Kahan, a Professor of Law and Psychology at Yale University, is a big proponent of what he calls identity-protective or ‘cultural’ cognition. Essentially the argument goes like this: people are motivated to protect the kind of values and beliefs that define their commitments to important groups with whom they identify and affiliate. What’s more, Dan and his group suggest that people actively recruit their reasoning abilities to distort the evidence. The more numerate, science-literate and educated you are, the better you can direct those skills at defending your beliefs. For example, in one study they found that if you zoom in on those with the highest scientific literacy scores, the opinion gap between liberals and conservatives on climate change doesn’t get smaller, it gets bigger! Other studies have also found that people with the greatest level of science education are the most polarized on issues such as human evolution and climate change. These findings imply that, on average, those who are the most ideologically committed and the most scientifically literate, show the greatest level of polarization on contested scientific issues. — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 133

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to motivated-reasoning literature and the debate on whether education/deference reduces misinformation susceptibility — parallels with research on whether numeracy helps or merely equips motivated reasoning. — connects to: Higher education amplifies science rejection among politically conservative Americans — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 141; Communicating scientific consensus reduces climate polarization across the spectrum — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 142; Presenting scientific consensus reduces rather than triggers partisan backfire — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof: Why Misinformation Infects…, 142
• QUESTION: Kahan’s cultural cognition results — how were these polarized-gap findings operationalized, and which replication attempts failed and why?

Broader Connections

• Higher education amplifies science rejection among politically conservative Americans #corroborates (0.92) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 141
• Communicating scientific consensus reduces climate polarization across the spectrum #contradicts (0.90) — Sander van der Linden, Foolproof, 142