Political orientation predicts science denial – here’s what that means for getting Americans vaccinated against COVID-19

September 16, 2021 8.16am EDT

Adrian Bardon

Professor of Philosophy, Wake Forest University

The rejection of scientific expertise with regard to COVID-19 vaccines appears to be standing in for something else. As a philosopher who has studied science denial, I suggest that this “something else” includes factors like distrust in public institutions and perceived threats to one’s cultural identity.

Indeed, social scientists looking at the causes of science denial have increasingly narrowed in on two contributing causes.

 Certain personality traits, including 

    - comfort with existing social and cultural hierarchies and 

    - a predilection for authoritarianism, 

go along with a skepticism for science. 

So do closely related aspects of identity, such as 

   - identification with a dominant social group like white evangelical Christians.

One school of thought in psychology, called compensatory control theory, holds that many social phenomena – including ideological science denial – stem from the basic human need for a sense of control over one’s environment and life outcomes. According to this theory, perceived threats to one’s sense of personal control can motivate denial of scientific consensus. The idea is that due to a combination of 

- economic insecurity, 

- demographic changes and the 

- perceived erosion of cultural norms favoring whites, 

some people feel an existential threat to the white supremacy they’ve long benefited from – which in turn spurs them to deny government warnings about the dangers of COVID-19.

I believe this compulsive defensiveness plays a big part in the phenomenon of science denial, once trusted elites like politicians or news media hosts trigger the inclination to oppose some particular science-based public policy. 

You can’t control 

    the coronavirus – or 

    inequality, or a 

    changing culture – 

but you can control 

    whether you 

    take the vaccine or 

    wear a mask. 

This sense of control is implicitly but powerfully attractive on a deep, emotional level.

Denial feeds on political polarization

As I discuss in my book, “The Truth About Denial,” I think that science denial, including COVID-19 vaccine denial, is probably best seen as the result of vicious feedback loops. Factors like 

    economic pain, 

    white Christian identity and 

    low social trust 

play off one another in populations experiencing relative social and informational isolation. This denialism can take hold more easily in people who have chosen to limit their experiences to relatively homogeneous geographic areas, social contexts and news media environments.

https://theconversation.com/political-orientation-predicts-science-denial-heres-what-that-means-for-getting-americans-vaccinated-against-covid-19-165386