Moral Convictions and Threats to Science

• Author: Robin Bayes
• Published date: 01 March 2022
• Date: 01 March 2022
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00027162221083514
• Subject Matter: Politicization

86 ANNALS, AAPSS, 700, March 2022

DOI: 10.1177/00027162221083514

Moral

Convictions and

Threats to

Science

By

ROBIN BAYES

1083514ANN THE ANNALS OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMYMORAL CONVICTIONS AND THREATS TO SCIENCE

research-article2022

When science is marshaled to support one side or

another in policy debates, people can react to that

information differently depending on whether it sup-

ports their own position. They tend to find fault in

unfavorable information and accept favorable informa-

tion less critically. This may especially be the case when

individuals’ positions are held with moral conviction—

that is, when their position is not only their preferred

position, but when it is the position that they feel to be

morally correct. I examine three areas in which allow-

ing moral convictions to influence reactions to scientific

information may actually threaten the social benefits of

science: promoting science misperceptions, eroding

the credibility of scientists as sources of information,

and eroding evaluations of science as a process. I argue

that dealing with the influence of moral conviction over

scientific interpretation will require acknowledgement

that the social benefits of science are not self-evident

and that they depend on public buy-in.

Keywords: science attitudes; public opinion; moral

conviction; moralized attitudes; moral

coherence; motivated reasoning; biased

assimilation

Despite substantial scholarly attention, as

well as longitudinal polling efforts like the

General Social Survey, there is much left to

learn about how the public responds to and

takes up scientific information (Druckman, this

volume). However, one major finding that has

emerged from four decades of research, begin-

ning with a landmark study by Lord, Ross, and

Lepper (1979), is that people are often less likely

to believe scientific information that challenges

what they wish to believe. This includes infor-

mation that challenges people’s self-interest and

self-esteem (Kunda 1990; Nauroth etal. 2017);

Robin Bayes is a PhD candidate in political science at

Northwestern University. Her research centers on sci-

ence communication and the science beliefs and atti-

tudes of the U.S. public.

Correspondence: Robin.Bayes@u.northwestern.edu