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How Weather Influences Global Warming Beliefs (Sad)

I can see how this started. A couple of Columbia University researchers are sitting at a bar wallowing in their frustration about how easily people can straight-up choose to ignore science and treat global warming as an article of faith. And then...

I can see how this started.

A couple of Columbia University researchers are sitting at a bar wallowing in their frustration about how easily people can straight-up choose to ignore science and treat global warming as an article of faith. And then, you know, choose not to believe in it. One of the researchers says something like, “What’s the point of trying to convince anyone? The average jack-off can’t think past whether they’re hot or cold at this very second, let alone temperature on a global scale and over a vast timescale.”

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The other replies, “I don’t think people are that fucking dumb.” They argue a bit, and eventually come up with an experiment.

However it started for reals, a pair of Columbia brains actually did do an experiment. 1,200 people were surveyed about their beliefs in global warming, and also about whether or not the current day felt warmer or cooler than usual. You can guess the result. People reporting that the day felt warmer were more likely to believe in global warming and be worried about it. If it was cooler, they were less likely.

“It is striking that society has spent so much money, time and effort educating people about this issue, yet people are still so easily influenced,” says Ye Li, one of the authors of the study, recently released in Psychological Science. “Global warming is so complex, it appears some people are ready to be persuaded by whether their own day is warmer or cooler than usual, rather than think about whether the entire world is becoming warmer or cooler.”

The researchers also polled people about the expected stuff that influences beliefs in global warming. Oddly enough, political ideals weren’t all that far ahead of current temperature in influencing people’s ideas about global warming. Which, given the massive information war about global warming coming from both sides of the political spectrum, it’s a rather weird finding.

Reach this writer at michaelb@motherboard.tv.