Chris C. Mooney's Blog, page 9

Does Alcohol Consumption (Temporarily) Increase Political Conservatism?

[image error]Whoa boy. I've been waiting for this study to come out (in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin). I discuss it in detail in my book, because I interviewed the lead author during my research.

It seems to me that this is the sort of paper that is virtually guaranteed to be misunderstood. So I'm going to do a longer piece, probably at Huffington Post, explaining what it *actually* means. For now, the abstract:

Low-Effort Thought Promotes Political Conservatism

Scott Eidelman Christian S...

The Science of Conservative (and Liberal) Morality

I'm sorry that posting has been so light here over the past week. I was traveling–Boston, Tucson–and then got knocked out by a cold for well over a week. Then things just sort of slid.

But I'm back and I wanted to direct your attention to two related endeavors of mine that touch on our growing scientific understanding of why conservatives and liberals differ.

[image error]First, my latest Point of Inquiry interview is with the University of Virginia moral psychologist Jonathan Haidt, whose new book The...

My Weekend at the Tucson Festival of Books

I'm in Tucscon, for the city's very awesome Festival of Books.  I'm doing two panels, both of which are also slated to air on CSPAN's Book TV.

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Here's the first panel, today:

4:30 PM ET–Politics Panel

Rick Perlstein, Nixonland: The Rise of a President and the Fracturing of America

Tom Zoellner, A Safeway in Arizona: What the Gabrielle Giffords Shooting Tells Us About the Grand Canyon State and Life in America

Chris Mooney, The Republican Brain: The Science of Why They Don't Believe in Science

And...

Can Geeks Defeat Lies? A Report From MIT and Harvard

[image error]After a day at #truthicon, and another about to begin, I've posted a long reflection on whether there can ever be a "killer app" to defeat online lies and falsehoods–which is also, simultaneously, a partial summary of the conference. You can read here.

At the root of the problem, I think, is the image at right–bigger here. Here's what I have to say about it:

I heard a lot of impressive stuff yesterday. But what I didn't hear—not yet anyway—was an idea that seems capable of getting past the...

Truthiness in the Internet Era–Or, How Do We Stop Playing Whack-a-Mole With Online Idiocy?

[image error]I'm here at the Harvard Law School today for this conference–where I'll be presenting with Brendan Nyhan on biased, motivated reasoning, and how we can short circuit it.

Then, very smart people will try to figure out what we can possibly do to, like, re-engineer cyberspace so that it is somewhat less conducive to letting human biases run amok.

It is not, let us admit, such an easy problem. I mean, Wikipedia is generally a den of truth (rather than truthiness), but those who can't face reality c...

Does College Make You Liberal? Or Do Liberals Make Colleges?

[image error]I couldn't stay silent about Santorum's latest barrage of attacks on universities. He thinks colleges make you liberal and discriminate against conservatives. But as I explain at Huffington Post, he likely has the causation precisely reversed.

Here's how the piece begins:

Lately Rick Santorum has been singing every tune from the "Culture Wars: Greatest Hits" album. So of course he soon came around to attacking higher education, charging that going to college makes people less religious, that...

A Call For Supporting Michael Mann

[image error]As readers know, I've been a great ally of my latest Point of Inquiry guest Michael Mann, and even called him a climate hero. I've blurbed his new book, saying the following:

Although not initially of his own choosing, Michael Mann has been the most important, resilient, and outspoken warrior in the climate battle–responding to threats and persecution with courage and resolve every step of the way. Anyone who cares about the climate issue must read his fascinating–and enraging–story.

My...

Catch Me on Thom Hartmann Tonight, Discussing The Republican Brain

The book is not out yet, but my Alternet/Salon preview pieces have driven a lot of attention, including a commentary from Paul Krugman (via Digby). And I'm also going to be on Thom Hartmann's "The Big Picture" tonight to discuss conservatives and the "smart idiot" effect.

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Here are the details if you want to watch:

Show airs at 9pm ET for the first time and repeats at 11pm ET on Free Speech TV and RT America. Here are the channels in DC:

DC Metro Area
Comcast -­ channel  274;
Verizon Fios -­...

Want to Improve Science Communication? Start with Bad PowerPoint Habits

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Source: Oran Viriyincy/Creative Commons

The latest AAAS meeting made me think a lot about science communication, and also a seeming paradox: science conferences these days are all about improving it; but frankly, science conferences are also a place to see lots of bad presentations.

This triggered a long piece at DeSmogBlog about misuses of PowerPoint–chiefly, the use of wordy slides, which are really almost never justifiable–and how scientific conferences could stamp out such misuses through s...

Why Even Educated Conservatives Deny Science

I've got my first article based partly on the book up–at Alternet. I will roll out a few more of these before the actual pub date of April 16.

The Alternet piece is about an enduring paradox–conservatives who are better educated, better informed, more scientifically literate tend to be worse deniers of science and reality. How do you explain this?

Well, read the piece, but basically, here's a brief quote:

For one thing, well-informed or well-educated conservatives probably consume more...