Thread Rating:
  • 0 Vote(s) - 0 Average
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5

Liberals & Conservatives Read Totally Different Books About Science

#1
C C Offline
http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-na...180962802/

EXCERPT: Nearly 50 years ago, a computer engineer named Paul Baran peered into the future of American media and didn't like what he saw. "With the diversity of information channels available, there is a growing ease of creating groups having access to distinctly differing models of reality, without overlap," wrote Baran [...] This was 1969 [...] But his warnings may be more prescient today than ever: New findings based on an extensive survey of American book-buying habits find that readers on different sides of the political aisle are not only deeply polarized over scientific issues—they also read completely different scientific books.

"It's really a consumption divide," says James Evans, a sociologist [...] "It's very difficult to imagine consumers of science in this environment appealing to a shared body of claims and facts and theories and arguments because they're really looking at different things."

[...] For science lovers dismayed by recent restrictions on the use of science at government agencies, there is another silver lining to the results: Political book purchasers of both persuasions were more likely to purchase books about science than topics like art or sports. "There's a really broad acceptance of the value of science,” Evans says, “by liberals and conservatives.”

The scientific fields that appeared most polarized among liberal and conservative-leaning book buyers may not surprise you: climatology, environmental science, social science and economics, among others. [...] Evans worries that in the long-term, this polarization could not only influence how the public views science, but could shape science itself for the worse. "The concern is that this kind of polarization could end up shaping the production of science in those fields," Evans says—for example, leading scientists to design narrower studies that unconsciously seek to confirm results that align with their biases....
Reply


Possibly Related Threads…
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  Dumbest epidemiology paper you'll read this week + Brazil: pro-chloroquine doctor C C 0 77 Jan 25, 2022 06:08 PM
Last Post: C C
  Theory that conservatives & liberals respond differently to threats may not be true C C 0 181 Jun 21, 2019 01:59 AM
Last Post: C C
  Neil DeGrasse Tyson Criticizes Liberals for Anti-Science Beliefs on Maher C C 0 438 Jun 9, 2016 04:42 AM
Last Post: C C



Users browsing this thread: 1 Guest(s)