dc.contributor.author |
Kahan, Dan |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Peters, Ellen |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Dawson, Erica Cantrell |
|
dc.contributor.author |
Slovic, Paul |
|
dc.date.accessioned |
2015-07-01T22:39:01Z |
|
dc.date.available |
2015-07-01T22:39:01Z |
|
dc.date.issued |
2013 |
|
dc.identifier.citation |
Kahan, D. M., Peters, E. Dawson, E. C., & Slovic, P. (2013). Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government (Working Paper No. 16). The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School. Retrieved from http://www.culturalcognition.net/browse-papers/the-polarizing-impact-of-science-literacy-and-numeracy-on-pe.html. |
en_US |
dc.identifier.uri |
http://hdl.handle.net/1794/18962 |
|
dc.description |
37 pages |
en_US |
dc.description.abstract |
Why does public conflict over societal risks persist in the face of compelling and widely accessible scientific evidence? We conducted an experiment to probe two alternative answers: the “Science Comprehension Thesis” (SCT), which identifies defects in the public’s knowledge and reasoning capacities as the source of such controversies; and the “Identity-protective Cognition Thesis” (ICT) which treats cultural conflict as disabling the faculties that members of the public use to make sense of decision-relevant science. In our experiment, we presented subjects with a difficult problem that turned on their ability to draw valid causal inferences from empirical data. As expected, subjects highest in Numeracy — a measure of the ability and disposition to make use of quantitative information — did substantially better than less numerate ones when the data were presented as results from a study of a new skin-rash treatment. Also as expected, subjects’ responses became politically polarized — and even less accurate — when the same data were presented as results from the study of a gun-control ban. But contrary to the prediction of SCT, such polarization did not abate among subjects highest in Numeracy; instead, it increased. This outcome supported ICT, which predicted that more Numerate subjects would use their quantitative-reasoning capacity selectively to conform their interpretation of the data to the result most consistent with their political outlooks. We discuss the theoretical and practical significance of these findings. |
en_US |
dc.description.sponsorship |
National Science Foundation, Grant SES 0922714; Cultural Cognition Lab at Yale Law School |
en_US |
dc.language.iso |
en_US |
en_US |
dc.publisher |
The Cultural Cognition Project at Yale Law School |
en_US |
dc.rights |
Creative Commons BY-ND |
en_US |
dc.subject |
Numeracy |
en_US |
dc.subject |
Risk |
en_US |
dc.subject |
Cognition |
en_US |
dc.title |
Motivated numeracy and enlightened self-government |
en_US |
dc.type |
Article |
en_US |