University of Gothenburg, Sweden.
Public Underst Sci. 2022 Nov;31(8):1063-1078. doi: 10.1177/09636625221095723. Epub 2022 May 9.
The belief gap hypothesis focuses on why individuals differ in beliefs about the causes and consequences of issues despite expert consensus. Offering ideological rationalization and media use as an explanation for diverting beliefs, it, so far, has focused on ideological priors that describe traditional socio-economic cleavages-even if scientific and environmental issues go beyond monetary questions. In this study, we aim to counter this shortcoming by introducing a socio-cultural dimension of ideology to research on the belief gap hypothesis. Comparing two issues of man-made threats-climate change and antimicrobial resistance-and emphasizing more strongly the role of media use for belief gaps, we find that a socio-cultural dimension of ideology serves as a better predictor for diverting beliefs about climate change but not for antimicrobial resistance. In contrast to left-leaning media, using right-leaning media outlets widens climate change belief gaps.
信仰差距假说关注的是，尽管存在专家共识，但为什么个体在对问题的原因和后果的看法上存在差异。该假说将意识形态合理化和媒体使用作为转移信仰的解释，迄今为止，它一直关注描述传统社会经济分裂的意识形态先入之见——即使科学和环境问题超出了货币问题。在这项研究中，我们旨在通过引入意识形态的社会文化维度来弥补这一缺陷。我们比较了人为威胁的两个问题——气候变化和抗微生物药物耐药性，并更加强调媒体使用在信仰差距中的作用，发现意识形态的社会文化维度可以更好地预测气候变化方面的信仰转移，但不能预测抗微生物药物耐药性方面的信仰转移。与倾向于左派的媒体不同，使用倾向于右派的媒体会扩大气候变化方面的信仰差距。
