Religiosity, Culture, and Science Communication
Abstract
It is well established that cultural commitments influence receptivity to scientific information on risks and related policy-relevant facts. Religiosity is one proxy for such commitments. My presentation will present data from numerous studies (observational and experimental, lab and field) that address how religiosity as a form of cultural affinity shapes engagement with the best available evidence on human-caused climate change. The central conclusion of this research is that a skeptical position on climate change, much like a skeptical position on human evolution, operates as a tacit badge of membership in and loyalty to groups bound together by religious affiliations. Overcoming the distorting impact that this dynamic has on climate-science communication requires engaging members of religious groups not as members of those groups per se but as citizens with a practical stake in addressing the risks that climate change poses to them and their neighbors. Once enlisted into discussion and practical action on these grounds, however, religious individuals can be expected to share their positive experiences and outlooks with other members of their religious communities, thereby demonstrating to them that engaging with this form of science does not conflict with their cultural identities.
- Publication:
-
AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMPA31A0324O
- Keywords:
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- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATION;
- 0855 Diversity;
- EDUCATION;
- 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES;
- 6699 General or miscellaneous;
- PUBLIC ISSUES