Latest Cultural cognition Stories

Is the divide between climate change theory advocates and global warming skeptics due to scientific ignorance? Not according to a new study published in the latest edition of the journal Nature Climate Change. According to a Sunday statement, researchers affiliated with the Yale Law School's Cultural Cognition Project tested the scientific literacy of a "representative sample" of 1,500 American adults in order to determine whether or not a lack of basic scientific education was responsible...

A new study concludes that people tend to match their risk perceptions about policy issues with their cultural values, which may explain the intense disagreement about proposals to vaccinate elementary-school girls against human-papillomavirus (HPV). The study also says people's values shape their perceptions of expert opinion on the vaccine.HPV is a widespread disease that, when sexually transmitted, can cause cervical cancer. In October of 2009, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention...

Study says people's values shape perceptions of HPV vaccine riskA new study concludes that people tend to match their risk perceptions about policy issues with their cultural values, which may explain the intense disagreement about proposals to vaccinate elementary-school girls against human-papillomavirus (HPV). The study also says people's values shape their perceptions of expert opinion on the vaccine.HPV is a widespread disease that, when sexually transmitted, can cause cervical cancer....

Religion and culture shape views of nanotechnologyTwo new National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored research studies say public acceptance of the relatively new, nature-altering science of nanotechnology isn't a foregone conclusion. Instead, the studies indicate continued concern.Researchers at Yale University say that when people learn about this novel technology they become sharply divided along cultural lines, while a separate study led by researchers at the University of...

Experts' Values, Not Just Their Expertise, Likely to Determine Their Influence on Public Views of NanotechnologyWhen the public considers competing arguments about a new technology's potential risks and benefits, people will tend to agree with the expert whose values are closest to their own, no matter what position the expert takes. The same will hold true for nanotechnology, a key study has found.The study results appear in a report issued today by the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies...