About one in four Republicans with only a high school education said they worried about climate change a great deal. But among college-educated Republicans, that figure decreases, sharply, to 8 percent.
On many other issues – social issues in particular, including abortion, gay marriage and divorce – more education is associated with higher rates of acceptance, regardless of party. Gaps between Democrats and Republicans persisted, but the relationships moved more or less in tandem.
I'll offer some randomish speculations.
First, Al Gore turned a scientific issue into a political one. Oops.
Then, education is not the same as intelligence. Knowing lots of facts isn't the same as intelligence either. And the ability to process data and form a conclusion (analogous to how computers can process data) is not the same as the ability to critically evaluate that conclusion (i.e. wisdom). They aren't mutually exclusive by any means - there may very well be a correlation - but they're not the same either.
The raw ability to process information can exacerbate the tendency to bullshit and rationalise if it isn't accompanied by the ability and desire to critically evaluate it. Those with a greater "computational" style of intelligence can find ways of justifying a conclusion that flies in the face of the evidence that a less "intelligent" person would never think of. If your education system doesn't promote critical thinking, then it may just give you more tools for your arsenal of rationalising. Everything is subject to doubt and uncertainty. Everything has vulnerabilities that deniers can exploit. It's possible to be highly skilled and intelligent but hold a really, really stupid opinion on at least some issues if you don't have this other sort of critical wisdom : the proverbial clever idiot, if you will.
Couple this with the Al Gore factor and Bob's your uncle. You've now turned that intelligence into a weapon designed not to search for the truth but simply to debunk for the sake of debunking.
Oops.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/11/14/upshot/climate-change-by-education.html?action=click&module=MoreInSection&pgtype=Article®ion=Footer&contentCollection=The+Upshot
I'll just point out that doing something about climate change as opposed to just watching it happen automatically makes it political.
ReplyDeleteGranted, having a politician make it his key crusade probably makes it even more political, but it was never going to be just a scientific thing. Humans hate "inconvenient" change.
There's also a difference between "Worried about climate change" and "Believe it's happening". One can accept that it's happening and also believe that the costs will ultimately not be that big (or at least; you'll come out ok).
ReplyDeleteThe US Senate is likely an example of people believing the latter.
That said; I am well aware of people who fall into your hypothesis. This data, unfortunately, doesn't give us enough information about which one is the dominant effect.
Here's another set of stats from pew research.
http://www.pewinternet.org/2016/10/04/public-views-on-climate-change-and-climate-scientists/
Unfortunately, this one doesn't break down by education. However, the rate of belief, including those who assert anthropogenic, appears to be higher in general. However, in this case, you can believe it's natural, and still be worried about it. Likewise, you might be more likely to be less worried about it if you believe it is Human Caused. Market Magic can then be used to fix the issue if humans caused it.
I think I'd also want to see a graph showing the percentage of people per party vs. education level. Just speculating whether exposure to university life causes people to rethink their political leanings, leaving behind a smaller number of people, with more extreme views, self-identifying as Republican.
ReplyDeleteAlun Jones That would make for some interesting selection effects. There's a well-known claim that only 6% of scientists vote Republican, but, predictably, that claim isn't exactly iron-clad :
ReplyDeletehttps://www.commentarymagazine.com/politics-ideas/conservatives-republicans/why-aren%E2%80%99t-there-any-republican-scientists-the-answer-may-not-be-so-complicated/
One of the weirder statistics from 2016 was that while there was a split between education on who voted for Brexit, there was a surprisingly small difference as to who voted for Trump :
http://www.bbc.com/news/election-us-2016-37943072
The fun part about the most scientists not being Republican, is that it appears that the Republicans don't care about gutting the Universities, and have no issues doubling or tripling the taxes paid by Grad Students.
ReplyDeleteI wonder why the US is the last country with so many well-educated deniers... I guess the reasons behind that are the same as those for the trumpcident ...
ReplyDeleteI'd be interested to see those graphs split into types of higher education. How many of the republican college graduates did things like finance or law for instance. Are there professions that are more one way or the other?
ReplyDelete