The science behind why people reject science

[Kaptinjoo]

http://motherjones.com/politics/2011/03/...ris-mooney

This is a very interesting article. Oddly enough linked to me in one of my programming newsletters.

[Darwinian]

Fascinating article

[downbeatplumb]

Great article.

I believe the seekers had a revival, hence the new seekers.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jr9hPbYmBo

I want a coke now.

[Rayaan]

The theory of motivated reasoning builds on a key insight of modern neuroscience (PDF): Reasoning is actually suffused with emotion (or what researchers often call "affect"). Not only are the two inseparable, but our positive or negative feelings about people, things, and ideas arise much more rapidly than our conscious thoughts, in a matter of milliseconds - fast enough to detect with an EEG device, but long before we're aware of it. That shouldn't be surprising: Evolution required us to react very quickly to stimuli in our environment. It's a "basic human survival skill," explains political scientist Arthur Lupia of the University of Michigan. We push threatening information away; we pull friendly information close. We apply fight-or-flight reflexes not only to predators, but to data itself.

We're not driven only by emotions, of course - we also reason, deliberate. But reasoning comes later, works slower - and even then, it doesn't take place in an emotional vacuum. Rather, our quick-fire emotions can set us on a course of thinking that's highly biased, especially on topics we care a great deal about.

So our reasoning can be influenced by our emotions without us even being aware of it. Well, I knew this already, but the particular study made it more interesting now. Thanks for sharing.

[theVOID]

Chris Mooney is a great science writer

http://scienceblogs.com/intersection/

This article surprisingly has a lot to do with an obscure psychological result that I posted about yesterday

[Zen Badger]

Well there you go.

And there I was thinking it's because they're fucking stupid.

[Minimalist]

Occam's razor is best, Zen.