Cultural Worldviews and Lay Interpretations of Research Findings: The Role of the Scientific Consensus

This chapter presents evidence of the role of cultural worldviews in lay interpretations of truth and falsity. Following in the footsteps of Douglas and Wildavsky (1982) it demonstrates firstly that ‘hierarchical individualists’ are less likely to believe in the actual occurrence of climate change than their ‘egalitarian’ and ‘communitarian’ counterparts. Using experimentally manipulated news reports about research findings that appear to contradict climate change, it then shows that ‘egalitarian communitarians’ do with both hands seize evidence that these findings may be compatible with the scientific consensus of actually occurring climate change after all. This means that not only the authority assigned to research findings, but even the interpretation of the scientific consensus within which these findings are launched, is informed by cultural worldviews.