"Fear of Climate Change May Finally Be Trumping Ideological Denial" by David Ropeik

[applegrove]

Fear of Climate Change May Finally Be Trumping Ideological Denial

by David Ropeik at Huffington Post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-ropeik/fear-of-climate-change-ma_b_1665019.html?utm_hp_ref=science&ir=Science

"SNIP..........................................

1. Tribalism. We are social animals, and our survival depends on belonging to a tribe that helps protect us. So we do lots of things to remain members in good standing of our tribe(s). One of them is subconsciously shaping our opinions so they agree with those in the group(s) with which we most closely identify. (This phenomenon is known as Cultural Cognition. ) By adopting 'the party line', we are accepted as members in good standing of our tribe, and by reinforcing tribal solidarity we increase our tribe's influence in competition with other tribes for overall control of society. This survival instinct of tribalism grows more intense the more threatened we feel about how society is going - economically, morally, politically.

With climate change, you can see this in the strong correlation between those who deny the evidence and their conservative or libertarian political and ideological affiliations. A Republican who fails to deny climate change is labeled a RINO...a Republican In Name Only...and shunned by "the base", the self-anointed true believers. Jon Huntsman acknowledged an open mind on climate change, and for his admirable honesty was resoundingly rejected in the GOP primary. Open minds are bad for tribal solidarity.

2. The Hubris of Cartesian Reason. We think we can keep an open mind, and reason, and use the facts to make the 'right' decision, more than we actually can. This is particularly true of liberals, who generally score highly in one of the five major personality traits known as Openness, which "...reflects the degree of intellectual curiosity, creativity and a preference for novelty and variety... sometimes called "intellect" rather than openness to experience." The problem is, this pretense of open mindedness is a dangerous deceit, because liberals are no different than other social human animals. They feel safer when their tribe wins too. So when liberals argue with climate change deniers, to a large degree they aren't really trying to change the deniers' minds. They're trying to WIN...to get the deniers not just to change their minds but in the process to abandon their tribe. But that feels threatening to the deniers, and in response their denial grows stronger. And that enrages the liberals, whose stridency grows. In the end, then, this survival instinct for tribal solidarity makes the whole fight about climate change an unwinnable battle over underlying worldviews, and counterproductively leaves us further from progress and solutions, and less safe.

3. Fear. Often the penultimate survival instinct of plain old fear - a direct worry about your physical health and safety - trumps almost everything else in human cognition. Think back to the frightening days after the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks in the United States. Remember how all the angry ugly divisive tribal polarization between so many groups in America just disappeared?! In an instant, the mantra became "We are ALL Americans". That fear (and don't forget the anthrax attacks that hit a month later) made a lot of liberals ready to believe the Bush Administration's lies about Saddam Hussein's biological weapons of mass destruction and his non-existent connection with Al Qaeda, and support the invasion of Iraq. Fear - 1, Tribal Cohesion - 0.

.........................................SNIP"