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new study in Environmental Politics looks at environmental concern in terms of political party affiliation, and it finds that while Tea Party Republicans claim they know climate science best, they actually scored the worst. Essentially, they do not know as much as they think they do, which probably will not come as a surprise to anyone who has attempted to engage with them on the science.
By asking specific questions about climate science instead of general science literary questions, this research overturns older studies that deniers have used to claim they are the smartest. Also, we see that as Democrats, Independents and Republicans become more educated, they are more likely to acknowledge that warming is real and human-caused. Tea Partiers, though, buck that trend and only get further entrenched as they get reach a higher level of education—a hallmark of denial as opposed to skepticism.
This is almost a textbook case of the Dunning-Kruger effect—so it is only a matter of time before the Tea Party's armchair scientists deny that, too.
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