Political Ideology Shapes How People Perceive Temperature 193
benfrog writes "In what likely isn't that much of a surprise, a study has shown that political ideology shapes how we perceive temperature changes (but not drought/flooding conditions). (An abstract of the study is here. 8,000 individuals were asked about temperatures and drought/flood events in recent years, then their political leanings. Answers regarding drought/flood events tended to follow the actual changes in conditions, while answers regarding temperature tended to follow people's political beliefs."
Re:The next question is... (Score:5, Insightful)
Skimming the article, it doesn't even seem they considered a very real possibility. That political bias doesn't affect how people perceive temperature, but that people tend to answer polls in a way that reflects well on their personal beliefs even if they know that answer isn't entirely truthful.
Re:Where's the data? (Score:4, Insightful)
The data is behind a paywall (click the PDF link in the abstract). Welcome to the world of scientific journals.
Another possibility (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:The next question is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:The next question is... (Score:5, Insightful)
My personal opinion is that this whole exercise isn't much different than asking a person if they thought the price of milk or the price of gas went up more in the last decade (or similar question).
I'd wager that most people wouldn't have any clue because the random person doesn't pay any attention to these things, so they would guess. That guess would likely not depend at all on any variable except their political beliefs.
Re:The next question is... (Score:4, Insightful)
Sure it will. Until their favored politicians tell them one way or the other, at which point I'll bet dollars to yuan that the same statistical anomaly appears for perceptions in precipitation change.
Re:The next question is... (Score:5, Insightful)