As Weather Extremes Get Worse, 37% Of Republicans Surveyed Deny Warming Exists - Up From 27% In 2017

[OKIsItJustMe]

4. USC: How a climate science believer could become a skeptic

https://today.usc.edu/how-a-climate-science-believer-could-become-a-skeptic/

How a climate science believer could become a skeptic
In a recent study, USC and Australian researchers found that the strength of people’s convictions in climate science can weaken when they are exposed repeatedly to statements or claims that contradict their beliefs.

September 23, 2024
By Emily Gersema

A study of mostly climate science believers shows just how easily information — and misinformation — can blur people’s sense of the truth. All it takes is repetition.

In recent research published in the journal PLOS ONE, USC and Australian researchers explored the powerful effect of repetition on people’s beliefs.

In two rounds studies, they found that even the strongest believers in climate science — those categorized as “alarmed” believers — felt that the skeptical and pro-climate beliefs seemed more true when they encountered them a second time.

“It could take as little as a single repetition to make someone feel as though a claim were true,” said Norbert Schwarz, a study co-author and Provost Professor of psychology at the USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences and the USC Marshall School of Business. “It’s certainly concerning, especially when you consider how many people are exposed to both truthful and false claims and either spread them or are persuaded by them to make decisions that might affect the planet.”

…

http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307294

(See also “gaslighting.”)