Scandals that fade for most people can harden beliefs among partisans

Evidence

The “Climategate” scandal over climate scientists’ e-mails at the University of East Anglia further eroded the public’s belief in global warming and fueled distrust of climate scientists (Leiserowitz et al., 2013). Although the scandal faded with time for most people, conservatives became even more convinced that the evidence for human causation of global warming is counterfeit. They used the erroneous claim that climate scientists are deeply divided in their views to undermine trust in the scientists and the reliability of their analyses. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2764

Categorization

• ADDENDUM: Supports the reader’s existing claim, via the mechanism argument, that partisans seek moral justification for opposition to environmental protection — the ‘counterfeit evidence’ framing is moral disengagement at work.
• XREF: Parallels the authoritarianism/conservative-social-position claims: group identity hardening in the face of disconfirming evidence. — connects to: Scandal-ridden influencers become ideological placeholders for divergent audiences — Crystal Abidin, Internet Celebrity: Understanding Fame…, 210; Even the most partisan reasoners eventually change beliefs under repeated corrective evidence — Lee McIntyre, Post-Truth, 110
• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 2764