"Kahan’s argument about the woman who does not believe in global warming is a surprising and persuasive example of a general principle: if we want to understand others, we can always ask what is making their behaviour ‘rational’ from their point of view. If, on the other hand, we just assume they are irrational, no … Continue reading Bias: it’s not a bug, it’s a feature
Tag: cultural cognition
A Simple Primer on Cultural Cognition
A Simple Primer on Cultural CognitionThe New Republic has a short summary of the cultural cognition project: how to talk to climate change deniers.Those who 'deny' climate change aren't mad, deluded or evil - they're just paying close attention to the community to which they owe allegiance. Various groups make use of publicly held views … Continue reading A Simple Primer on Cultural Cognition
How cultural commitments damage your ability to reason
When people don't accept the scientific evidence, it may be useless to present them with yet more evidence. They are not stupid. They are simply protecting their cultural identity. Here's the journalism: Science confirms: politics wrecks your ability to do math And here's the original study, Motivated Numeracy and Enlightened Self-Government Kahan, Dan M., Peters, … Continue reading How cultural commitments damage your ability to reason
Experts and Cultural Cognition
Dan Kahan's blog at the Cultural Cognition Project makes some conjectures about whether experts think in similar ways to non-experts. Specifically he wonders whether experts exhibit the kinds of cultural biases already demonstrated by non-experts. Do experts use cultural cognition? My observation is that there would need to be care taken to avoid something like … Continue reading Experts and Cultural Cognition
It matters who presents the message
Who would you trust to tell you what the risks are? Research from the Cultural Cognition project suggests the cultural identity of the presenter matters significantly to the public reception of a particular message about risk. In other words, we need our experts to be our experts, not the other side’s experts. It follows from … Continue reading It matters who presents the message
Moving beyond a failure in the marketplace of ideas
The following is a guest post from Prof Dan Kahan in response to a previous post here, on Margaret Heffernan’s book, Willful Blindness. 4culture’s insightful post put me in mind of something important that in fact he has said explicitly before: Understanding the contribution that cultural influences have on our perceptions of risk (and like facts) cannot only explain … Continue reading Moving beyond a failure in the marketplace of ideas
Guest post coming up
Dan, Thanks for your interesting message. I'd certainly like to make a 'guest post' of it. It fits very well with the next piece coming up here on the London riots - but of course you say things that hadn't even occurred to me. For example the whole idea of a market place of ideas … Continue reading Guest post coming up
Evidence-based riots
It's been hard to move recently for people leaping to conclusions. Everyone with an Internet connection has already posted an opinion about the supposedly obvious causes of the London riots. Medhi Hassan's heartfelt plea for pundits to to stop generalising certainly makes sense. The introduction reads: The debate about the riots is being hijacked by … Continue reading Evidence-based riots
Everyone loves a quiz
Everyone loves a quiz and Psychology Today magazine has a cultural cognition quiz for you, courtesy of David Ropeik. Roepik is the author of How Risky is it, Really? Why our fears don't always match the facts. His website offers exerpts from the book and -wait for it - more quizzes! While you're here, though, … Continue reading Everyone loves a quiz
Culture and the Science of Climate Change
George Monbiot at the Guardian has finally begun to take account of Cultural Theory as a possible explanation for why people either believe or ‘refuse’ to believe in climate change. He cites an article in Nature by Dan Kahan of the Yale Law School Cultural Cognition Project. Prof Kahan says: ‘we need a theory of … Continue reading Culture and the Science of Climate Change
Four Cultures 