RICH IDIOT EFFECT Ѽ As Republicans become more highly educated, or better at general science comprehension, they become stronger in their global warming denial. Its a phenomenon Ive called the smart idiot effect: Apparently being highly informed or capable interacts with preexisting political biases to make those on the right more likely to be wrong than they would be if they had less education or knowledge. Now, a new study in the journal Climatic Change has identified a closely related phenomenon. Call it the rich idiot effect: The study finds that among Republicans, as levels of income increase, so does their likelihood of dismissing the dangers associated with climate change. But among Democrats and independents, there is little or no change in climate views as levels of income increase or decrease. The study, by Jeremiah Bohr of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, was based on an analysis of pre-existing data from the 2010 installment of the General Social Survey—a leading source of survey information about the US public. In addition to questions about levels of education, income, and political party affiliation, the survey asked the following: In general, do you think that a rise in the worlds temperature caused by climate change is extremely dangerous for the environment, very dangerous, somewhat dangerous, not very dangerous, or not dangerous at all for the environment? Ѽ motherjones/environment/2014/07/climate-denial-wealth-rich-republicans
Posted on: Sat, 12 Jul 2014 08:39:17 +0000
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