Getting inside the mind of a climate science denier
Nov 28, 2016 13:06:27 GMT
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Post by benson on Nov 28, 2016 13:06:27 GMT
In States of Denial, sociologist Stanley Cohen argued that denial can be a form of coping with the negative emotions that emerge when we think about catastrophic events. Denial can then be seen as an “unconscious defence mechanism for coping with guilt, anxiety, or other disturbing emotions aroused by guilt,” he wrote. “The psyche blocks off information that is literally unthinkable or unbearable.”
There’s one particular personality trait that underpins most of these other correlations: social dominance orientation.
In psychology, social dominance orientation is a measure of an individual’s acceptance of hierarchical power structures and inequality between social groups. Those who score high in surveys measuring social dominance orientation tend to see the world as an ongoing competition between social groups, and think it’s normal that some groups are at the bottom and others are at the top.
Jylha says that if you control for social dominance orientation, some of the other correlations she found reduce or vanish. For example, social dominance orientation mediated most of the effects of gender and personality variables on denial in her study.
Research has also shown that people who accept dominance over certain social groups are also highly likely to accept human dominance over animals. A study led by Kristof Dhont, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Kent, found that social dominance orientation can predict whether someone has a speciesist attitudes towards animals—in other words, that he or she believes human beings by virtue of their species have greater moral rights than non-human animals.
Another study, led by Taciano Milfont from the University of Wellington, shows that social dominance orientation predicts a person’s support for environmental exploitation, to the extent that harming the environment widens the gap between social groups. According to the study, those who exhibited social dominance orientation supported a new mining operation only when it was expected to generate further profits to high-status groups—and not when profits were equally divided between all.
qz.com/813747/how-to-talk-to-a-climate-change-denier-psychology-of-denial/
There’s one particular personality trait that underpins most of these other correlations: social dominance orientation.
In psychology, social dominance orientation is a measure of an individual’s acceptance of hierarchical power structures and inequality between social groups. Those who score high in surveys measuring social dominance orientation tend to see the world as an ongoing competition between social groups, and think it’s normal that some groups are at the bottom and others are at the top.
Jylha says that if you control for social dominance orientation, some of the other correlations she found reduce or vanish. For example, social dominance orientation mediated most of the effects of gender and personality variables on denial in her study.
Research has also shown that people who accept dominance over certain social groups are also highly likely to accept human dominance over animals. A study led by Kristof Dhont, a lecturer in psychology at the University of Kent, found that social dominance orientation can predict whether someone has a speciesist attitudes towards animals—in other words, that he or she believes human beings by virtue of their species have greater moral rights than non-human animals.
Another study, led by Taciano Milfont from the University of Wellington, shows that social dominance orientation predicts a person’s support for environmental exploitation, to the extent that harming the environment widens the gap between social groups. According to the study, those who exhibited social dominance orientation supported a new mining operation only when it was expected to generate further profits to high-status groups—and not when profits were equally divided between all.
qz.com/813747/how-to-talk-to-a-climate-change-denier-psychology-of-denial/
