Science Denial by Gale Sinatra

Author:Gale Sinatra
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2021-10-15T00:00:00+00:00

The Development of Epistemic Cognition

Individuals develop their ideas about knowledge and knowing—their epistemic cognition—over time and in patterned ways. A simple way to understand the progression is through a developmental model of three progressive worldviews.4 Imagine this late-night conversation in a college dorm, where a student studying for an exam with others in his class raises the topic of evolution:

jay:I just can’t buy what we’re being taught about evolution, and I know it’s not true because my pastor, my parents, and the Bible all say that humans were created in their own form, and I have always believed what they say. What I’m hearing in class has to be wrong.

rick:But Jay, people are entitled to their own opinions! Some people believe in evolution and some people don’t. Everyone has the right to decide.

emily:Guys, there’s scientific evidence for evolution! This isn’t just some wild idea, it’s something scientists have studied carefully, and the theory is supported. Let me explain how we know this.

Exemplified in this simplistic dialogue are three discrete ways of knowing that researchers have identified as characterizing a developmental progression: absolutism (Jay), or thinking in absolute terms; multiplism (Rick), entertaining multiple points of view as equally valid; and evaluativism (Emily), evaluating and seeking to substantiate one’s views.5

Those whose ways of knowing are absolutist are likely to think in black and white, dualistic, dichotomous terms. Knowledge is viewed as unquestioningly objective, certain, and true, handed down intact from authority. Students who view knowledge in this way are likely to see it as a collection of facts, to expect teachers and other authorities to know everything worth knowing, and to view learning as the task of memorizing and repeating back.6 There are no gray areas and no role for interpretation or subjectivity. For some individuals this dualistic thinking prevails into adulthood. They seek certainty, trust authorities absolutely, and dismiss ambiguity. Science deniers, for example, have been described as engaging in dichotomous thinking, imagining that either facts are known with certainty or there is simply inconclusive controversy.7 They may rely on known authorities without evaluating their expertise or expecting evidence as a basis for their claims. They may be averse to ambiguity and locked in the stage of absolutism that many outgrow in adolescence. Contemporary examples abound.

Absolutist thinking starts to crumble when individuals recognize that there might be different perspectives on the same topic, that knowledge is not just handed down intact but is constructed by the knower, and that not everything can be known with complete certainty. This can usher in a worldview of multiplism, a form of radical uncertainty, where knowledge is subjective, based on interpretation and opinion. All opinions seem equally valid, and each person is entitled to think what they wish, with no means to evaluate conflicting ideas. In Barbara’s studies of college students’ thinking about evolution, for example, those who held multiplist views were less likely to accept the scientific consensus on evolution than were those who thought evaluatively, the stage that follows. They were also more

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