"Basically the reason that people react in a close-minded way to information is that the implications of it threaten their values," says Dan Kahan, a law professor at Yale University and a member of The Cultural Cognition Project. Kahan says people test new information against their preexisting view of how the world should work. "If the implication, the outcome, can affirm your values, you think about it in a much more open-minded way," he says. And if the information doesn't, you tend to reject it. In another experiment, people read a United Nations study about the dangers of global warming. Then the researchers told the participants that the solution to global warming is to regulate industrial pollution. Many in the individualistic group then rejected the climate science. But when more nuclear power was offered as the solution, says Braman, "they said, you know, it turns out global warming is a serious problem."And for the communitarians, climate danger seemed less serious if the only solution was more nuclear power.
Charles Daney on 13 Sep 09Have a friend remove an object from a room you know well--say, a napkin holder from your kitchen--and then see if you can guess what he's taken away. Even if you don't know the answer, your eyes will unconsciously fixate on the stretch of countertop next to the toaster where the holder usually sits. Remembering what goes where in your kitchen is called relational memory, and now scientists have shown that your unknowing stare may be a sign that your brain remembers even when you don't.
