Dit zou te maken hebben met de heersende culturele opvattingen over wat risico's zijn: onze risicoperceptie wordt zo mee bepaald door onze eigen (culturele) waarden:
- zo hechten we wél waarde aan bewijzen die passen bij onze waarden.
- bewijzen die niet passen bij onze waarden, negeren we
... The cultural cognition of risk refers to the tendency of individuals to form risk perceptions that are congenial to their values.... The theory posits a collection of psychological mechanisms that dispose individuals selectively to credit or dismiss evidence of risk in patterns that fit values they share with others.
Dit is ondermeer te wijten aan:
(1) de beschikbaarheidsheuristiek. Deze houdt in dat die zaken die het makkelijkst in onze gedachten komen (en dat zijn vooral zaken die passen bij onze waarden), het belangrijkste lijken.
Cultural cognition might be expected to shape beliefs about expert consensus through the interaction of values and the availability heuristic. Imagine that when individuals consider an issue like climate change they perform what amounts to a mental survey of experts they have observed offering an opinion on this issue. The impact scientific consensus will have on their thinking will thus turn on how readily they can recall instances of experts taking positions one way or the other.
The cultural cognition thesis predict that individuals will more readily recall instances of experts taking the position that is consistent with their cultural predisposition than ones taking positions inconsistent with it.
(2) We geloven ook het meest datgene wat aansluit bij onze waarden. De andere zaken negeren we.
(3) Verder zoeken we vooral info op die past bij onze eigen reeds bestaande culturele ideeën. En we zullen ook meer moeite doen om zo'n informatie te vinden (in tegenstelling tot de moeite die we doen om info te vinden die ingaat tegen onze opinies)A cultural availability effect of this sort could result from the influence of other mechanisms of cultural cognition. To start, cultural cognition influences perceptions of credibility:... indeed, they tend to disbelieve those whose worldviews they perceive as different from theirs.
Vandaar: we moeten dus zowel aandacht besteden aan de wetenschappelijke waarde van de info die we willen overbrengen, maar ook aan de culturele betekenis ervan. We zorgen er best voor dat ze niet in strijd is met de culturele identiteit van het individu:...other mechanisms might cause individuals of opposing worldviews to form opposingly skewed mental inventories of expert opinion. For example, individuals tend to search out information congenial to their cultural predispositions. Accordingly, we might expect individuals to work harder to find expert opinion supportive of their existing, culturally informed perceptions of risk than they do to find expert opinion that challenges those perceptions...
uit: (full text) Kahan, Dan M., Jenkins-Smith, Hank and Braman, Donald, Cultural Cognition of Scientific Consensus (February 7, 2010). Cultural Cognition Project Working Paper No. 77...To overcome this effect, risk communicators must attend to the cultural meaning as well as the scientific content of information. In order to assure open-minded consideration of scientific findings, they must strive
to present it in a way that avoids making it needlessly threatening to the identities of one or another group of culturally diverse citizens...
Dido
