This post was originally published on Molepost.com
by MolePost Columnist Thomas Heibel
I heard a very convincing explanation a week or two ago on NPR's morning show about why so many people do not believe that global warming is caused by human actions. They did a piece on this very topic: Why is the percentage of people who believe in global warming lower today than a few years ago?
They asked a high school girl from "Oklahoma" who's studying this topic in class if she believed humans are causing global warming. She said she's not convinced that we are.
So, they wanted to know whether a non-believer if presented with scientific evidence would change their mind. They invited a climatologist from I believe NOAA to present to her the evidence that could only explain human involvement.
Her response isn't surprising based on what a University of Michigan political science professor discovered in his research on belief systems. I heard this on Terry Gross's show in October before the elections. What he said seems fairly intuitive, and he gave data to support his study.
In a nutshell, if we're exposed to enough lies about something, we'll start believing those lies even if we're presented with solid evidence to the contrary. [I think FOX and the republicans have known this for sometime.] In fact, the belief system becomes so fixed that it becomes almost impossible to change. However, he did find that there's a critical period just after exposure to the lies, that if presented with rational, truthful evidence the belief system is less fixed and can change.
I guess this explains why there are still some people who deny the holocaust, believe Reagan didn't raise taxes and the Iraq war was fought to bring democracy to the Middle-East.
I think we're going to have to put our faith in the young to solve this problem. Now, would that class come before "creation science" or after "manifest destiny: why the indians wanted to move"? I think we need our own egyptian revolution!