Why are most anthropogenic global warming skeptics conservatives?

Question

Surveys have shown that not only do the vast majority of liberals believe the man-made global warming theory is correct, but so do the majority of conservatives.

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=ArHYFVZz0P6LZIlrDK6XzQ3ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20071212132810AAfr6Hk

However, most who are skeptical of or deny the theory are politically conservative.

Why do you think acceptance of the theory breaks down this way politically? Do you think most conservatives/liberals are forming opinions on this issue based on science or politics?

Paper mentioned by Aculeus: http://www.psych.nyu.edu/amodiolab/Amodio%20et%20al.%20(2007)%20Nature%20Neuro.pdf

Answer 1

Studies have shown that conservatives tend to have less function in the anterior cingulate cortex--the part of the brain that affects a person's ability to process ambiguous or conflicting information. So basically, when they have been told one thing long enough and then are given new information, they have a difficulty modifying their reasoning because the part of the brain that allows a normal person to do that doesn't work well enough. Interestingly, the anterior cingulate cortex is also the part of the brain that dictates how much empathy you feel for others...draw your own conclusions there. ;)

Answer 2

Polls are flawed tools, and I sure hope you don't believe in them. Unless you can poll every single person living in the US there is absolutely no way you can believe in or trust a poll.

Yes most of the Skeptics on Yahoo Answers are conservatives and we don't deny it, but I bet if you asked us who we were to vote for in the next Presidential Election we'd be split, since we'd be looking for the most middle of the road candidate we could find.

You try to claim the scientific community has enough data to irrefutably claim the Anthropogenic Global Warming "theory" is a fact. I don't believe they do. I also doubt they were collecting data for this theory a hundred years ago. And even if they did start, the tools they were using to do so weren't anything like the tools they are using today. Or the tools they will be using in the future.

Edit: linlyons - I have no idea why you have it out for me.

1.) Poll - Means 1) Survey of Public - A questioning of the population or of a representative sample to tally opinions or gather other information. (See also Opinion Poll)

As for Presidential Canidates this is only the primaries and my guess it will either be:

Former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R-New York) for the Republican Ticket

and

US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-New York)
for the Democratic Ticket

As for who they'll pick for running mates I don't know yet, but both primary races are extremely close so these guesses could be wrong.

As for who I'm going to vote for, that's still undecided until I know who makes it through the primaries.

Answer 3

This particular question goes to point out the Political - environmental link that has come to be source of the general overall skepticism shown toward AGW. When politics and science become intertwined, then you mix in big money and you get bad science. Science that is deserving of the scathing skepticism that more and more scientists are risking their reputation on everyday. AGW reminds one of the McCarthy hearings of the 1950's. Any scientists that shows any sign of opposing the AGW theory risks getting "blacklisted" and having his funding pulled.
Science is about facts not consensus. Science will take a theory and test it, when the answers come out different then the theory predicts, then the theory is amended to fit the facts, not the other way around. It seems the more research is done on AGW the more they find that the facts have been twisted to fit the theory. That is not a product of science, but a product of politics and greed.
So Where in that link does it prove that most skeptics are conservatives? I read the link and proves nothing of the sort.
Is this how you come to your conclusions? you read things like your link and go on to draw loosely based correlations and half wit conclusions and run with it?

"However, most who are skeptical of or deny the theory are politically conservative."

So what you are saying is, ...... the question stated that majority of Republicans believe in AGW, and no conservatives answered the question, so that means that most who are skeptics are by default conservative because they did not answer the question?
What kind of convoluted logic is that? So by their silence you are assuming that it is mostly conservatives that are the skeptics? .........well you know what assuming makes you.....and you definitely just proved it.

The moment AGW proponents tied their cause to a political agenda they created skeptics from all walks of life, not just conservatives.
Why? Because lies work that way. They require inspiration to perpetuate. Where as facts do not. A fact is supported by every other fact in the universe and requires no inspiration to be believed. A lie needs inspiration and more lies to cover for the original lie. What a better marriage is there then Politics and lies? except politics, lies and money. All of which AGW has going for it now.
By it's very nature of the beast it has become, AGW inspires skepticism.

Answer 4

Because liberals "feel" and conservatives THINK.

Anyone with half a brain can see that global warming does not exist. but Liberals love to "feel" scared, "feel" like they are doing some good, etc.

the imaginary myth of "global warming" is based on a single study that found the earth's average temperature increased approximately 0.6 degrees in 100 years.

first, 100 years ago, the low-tech thermometers used for recording temeperature were nowhere NEAR as accurate as today's electronic devices. The 0.6 degrees difference is much, much less than the measurement error between then and now.

second, on a planet that is estimated to be 4.5 Billion years old, 100 years is much, much less than a blink of an eye. If you wanted to gather enough data to establish a trend, let's say you wanted one-one hundredth of a percent, or 0.01 % of the earth's lifespan. that means gathering actual data for 450,000 years - WITH THE SAME INSTRUMENTS

global warming plays on your fears and pushes emotional buttons. it's NOT based on ANY legitimate scientific research, only on the UNPROVEN and UNPROVABLE theories of a few people who are more driven by a political agenda than they are interested in real science

Answer 5

Liberals tend to think they know it all. For example, they believe government run by a few bureaucrats can operate a market more effectively than the collective opinion of millions of people who continuously decide what they want. Even though it is proven countless times that free markets work far better, liberals never seem to get over themselves and how smart they are. Similarly, when it comes to the environment, which has become the safe house of socialists from Gorabachev to home grown left wing wackos, liberals think that they know best. When you show them that they really don't know as much as they think they do, they scoff at you and call you a denier or skeptic for daring to doubt their knowledge. In the end when they are proven wrong, which they inevitably are, they say, "well at least I tried to help" but you'll never get them to look at the path of destruction that they have created with their policies.

Answer 6

Because right-thinking people tend to be skeptical of dramatically increasing the size of government to solve a "problem" that has been occurring since the beginning of time.

People in the "enlightened class" tend to spend their time thinking, not doing, and hence have no problem overhauling our economic system to pursue a doomsday theory.

i.e. Get a job away from politics or academics and you may also change your tune.

Answer 7

We are not prone to panic at everyone's latest crises. We think in liner and logical lines, not subject to the emotion of the "Chicken Little's" of the world. Since people have been looking and seeing Armageddon around every corner and proclaiming it is near, none of them have been correct, thus credibility is low.

Answer 8

I don't think you can completely separate peoples interpretation of the science from their politics.

How people think (meaning how their mind works) affects what they believe. Sceptics seem to have a pre-conceived distrust of environmental alarmism. Believers seem to have a pre-conceived distrust of the private sector.

Answer 9

Because conservatives are often very traditional people. They don't like to change what they've always been taught to believe.

Answer 10

Surveys, what surveys? Would you care to show some real data, with source references?

Answer 11

The only reason most people talk about it is because they believe the political propaganda of Al Gore that talks about doom.