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Cultural Cognition Of Scientific Consensus, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Hank Jenkins-Smith
Cultural Cognition Of Scientific Consensus, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Hank Jenkins-Smith
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Why do members of the public disagree - sharply and persistently - about facts on which expert scientists largely agree? We designed a study to test a distinctive explanation: the cultural cognition of scientific consensus. The "cultural cognition of risk" refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values. The study presents both correlational and experimental evidence confirming that cultural cognition shapes individuals' beliefs about the existence of scientific consensus, and the process by which they form such beliefs, relating to climate change, the disposal of nuclear wastes, and the effect of permitting …
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
Developing Substantive Environmental Rights, Dinah L. Shelton
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Human rights tribunals facing claims of violations stemming from environmental degradation are increasingly incorporating and applying national and international environmental standards to assess whether or not the government in question has complied with its legal obligations. The government is required to comply with whatever environmental laws it has enacted as well as treaties to which it is a party. Furthermore the tribunals will assess, albeit with considerable deference, whether or not the environmental laws set the level of protection too low to allow the enjoyment of guaranteed human rights, in some instances drawing on the precautionary principle and other concepts …
Culture And Identity-Protective Cognition: Explaining The White Male Effect In Risk Perception, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, John Gastil, Paul Slovic, C.K. Mertz200
Culture And Identity-Protective Cognition: Explaining The White Male Effect In Risk Perception, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, John Gastil, Paul Slovic, C.K. Mertz200
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Why do white men fear various risks less than women and minorities? Known as the white male effect, this pattern is well documented but poorly understood. This paper proposes a new explanation: identity-protective cognition. Putting work on the cultural theory of risk together with work on motivated cognition in social psychology suggests that individuals selectively credit and dismiss asserted dangers in a manner supportive of their preferred form of social organization. This dynamic, it is hypothesized, drives the white male effect, which reflects the risk skepticism that hierarchical and individualistic white males display when activities integral to their cultural identities …
Affect, Values, And Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions: An Experimental Investigation, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen
Affect, Values, And Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions: An Experimental Investigation, Donald Braman, Dan M. Kahan, Paul Slovic, John Gastil, Geoffrey L. Cohen
GW Law Faculty Publications & Other Works
Despite knowing little about nanotechnology (so to speak), members of the public readily form opinions on whether its potential risks outweigh its potential benefits. On what basis are they forming their judgments? How are their views likely to evolve as they become exposed to more information about this novel science? We conducted a survey experiment (N = 1,850) to answer these questions. We found that public perceptions of nanotechnology risks, like public perceptions of societal risks generally, are largely affect driven: individuals' visceral reactions to nanotechnology (ones likely based on attitudes toward environmental risks generally) explain more of the variance …