When it comes to climate change, some look at the facts presented and see a coming catastrophe, others see a hoax. This difference in interpretation, social scientists say, has more to do with each individual’s existing outlook than the facts.

Over the past few months, polls show that fewer Americans say they believe humans are making the planet dangerously warmer, despite a raft of scientific reports that say otherwise.

This puzzles many climate scientists – but not some social scientists, whose research suggests that facts may not be as important as one’s beliefs.

Take, for example, a recent debate about climate change on West Virginia public radio.

Coal company CEO Don Blankenship and environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr. debate

‘It’s a hoax,’ said coal company CEO Don Blankenship, ‘because clearly anyone that says that they know what the temperature of the Earth is going to be in 2020 or 2030 needs to be put in an asylum because they don’t.’

On the other side of the debate was environmentalist Robert Kennedy, Jr.

‘Ninety-eight percent of the research climatologists in the world say that global warming is real, that its impacts are going to be catastrophic,’ he argued. ‘There are 2 percent who disagree with that. I have a […]