It is Not About Science, but Values

Roger Pielke Jr.'s Blog
"A really interesting new study is published this week in the Journal of Risk Research that seeks to explain why it is that on highly politicized issues the public does not uniformly defer to the views of scientific experts, even when those experts are largely in consensus. The answer is not that one group in society is "anti-science," but rather that people tend to weight evidence and experts differently based on cultural considerations. ......This helps to explain why efforts to enforce a rigid consensus of views in climate policy have back-fired so strongly among many in the so-called skeptical community. The more that a consensus is invoked and the narrower it is defined, the more it puts off the very people that those seeking to share scientific knowledge should be trying to communicate with, the unconvinced. Denigrating one's cultural or political opponents may feel satisfying, but it is not a good strategy for getting them to accept that your views are sound. Thus, open, transparent and diverse expert advisory processes are more likely to be generally viewed as legitimate and robust."