[troutman]

Four big reasons why deniers started believing in climate change

https://qz.com/966586/four-big-reaso...sis-of-reddit/



But why did people reject climate change in the first place? Family was the most common reason. “Mostly because my family rigorously shot it down whenever it was remotely mentioned,” one person wrote. Another writer had grown up “actively and obnoxiously denying climate change because my dad told me it wasn’t real.”

But personal politics and identity were a close second (and are cited as top reasons in other studies). Climate change is starkly political in the US. Although 68% of registered Democrats rate climate change as a “very serious problem,” reports the Pew Research Center, only 20% of Republicans agree (the global median is 58%) . “I had kinda developed the idea that liberals were the ‘bad guys,’” said one poster justifying his rejection of the science. Another added: “… raised Republican. Naturally, I believed climate change is leftist bull####.”

The third major reason was a desire to avoid the enormity of the problem. “I really doubted it for a while, because honestly it scared me,” one poster wrote. “I figured if I just denied it and pretended it wasn’t a thing, it wouldn’t be and it would just go away.”