Denialism Is for Wingnuts - New Study

The ranks of climate change denialists are laced with conspiracy theorists.   That probably doesn't come as much of a surprise to those who have paid any attention to the Tinfoil Hat Brigade, the characters who envision a giant hoax perpetrated for many years by the world's 'scientists' who are, after all, just in it for their massive incomes.   But, for what it's worth, we've got a new study that concludes the wingnuts are indeed wingnuts.

The study, titled The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science and published in the journal PLOS ONE, also finds another strong predictor for the dismissal of the science of human-caused climate change.

That is, if you're a conservative who believes the world runs best when businesses operate in a "free market" with little government interference, then the chances are you don't think human-caused climate change represents a significant risk to human civilisation.

The new study is led by Professor Stephan Lewandowsky, chair of cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol, and follows his previous study which caused the metaphorical head of the climate science denial blogosphere to explode.