{"id":19295,"date":"2016-03-30T12:52:59","date_gmt":"2016-03-30T17:52:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19295"},"modified":"2016-03-30T12:52:59","modified_gmt":"2016-03-30T17:52:59","slug":"peak-oil-we-all-do-this-but-pt-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=19295","title":{"rendered":"Peak Oil: We All Do This, But\u2026. Pt 1"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"postHeader\">\n<h3 class=\"postTitle\"><a title=\"Permalink to Peak Oil: We All Do This, But\u2026. Pt 1\" href=\"http:\/\/peakoilmatters.com\/2016\/03\/29\/we-all-do-this-but-pt-1\/\">Peak Oil: We All Do This, But\u2026. Pt 1<\/a><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"postContent\">\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-8420 aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/peakoilmatters.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/SaltIsland100315A-225x127.jpg\" alt=\"SaltIsland100315A\" width=\"520\" height=\"294\" \/><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Confirmation bias is the tendency of individuals to pay attention to or believe information that confirms the personal values and beliefs they already hold, rather than allowing their beliefs to be changed by new information.<\/em><br \/>\n<em>It\u2019s a powerful force that many researchers have suggested plays a key role in the persistence of phenomena such as climate doubt. With an overwhelming abundance of evidence pointing to the existence of anthropogenic climate change, for instance, many scientists have questioned why skepticism continues to be pervasive in society. Sociologists have suggested that the reason has to do with the fact that it\u2019s difficult to change an individual\u2019s worldview simply by presenting new information. Confirmation bias, rather, leads people to seek out evidence \u2014 however small or poorly supported \u2014 that supports their existing personal beliefs. [1]<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Seems to be a simple enough explanation\u2026.We can all [present company included] insist that we\u2019re always objective and always looking at all sides of important issues, but \u2026 not really. Human nature is what it is. This is true for conservatives and progressives\u2014denials and finger-pointing duly noted.<\/p>\n<p>For the great majority of issues, questions, and concerns that pop up on our daily radar screens, this psychological short-cut is certainly handy, and rarely a cause of any great trouble in our lives. It\u2019s a different story for matters whose scope and impact extends beyond today in our own little worlds.<\/p>\n<p>Climate change is certainly one such issue, as was explored in\u00a0Chelsea Harvey\u2019s\u00a0above-referenced\u00a0<em>Washington Post<\/em>\u00a0article about a study which examined the spread of misinformation online. Any number of contentious political\/economic\/cultural topics likewise fall under that widening umbrella. The report\u2019s lead author offered one of the main conclusions validating the impact of confirmation bias as it relates to the spread of climate change denial<strong>:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Peak Oil: We All Do This, But\u2026. Pt 1 Confirmation bias is the tendency of individuals to pay attention to or believe information that confirms the personal values and beliefs they already hold, rather than allowing their beliefs to be changed by new information. It\u2019s a powerful force that many researchers have suggested plays a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,4,6],"tags":[2648,1200,67,3252,617,11973,10552,5702],"class_list":["post-19295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-energy-2","category-environment","category-liberty","tag-anthropogenic-climate-change","tag-belief-systems","tag-beliefs","tag-confirmation-bias","tag-peak-oil","tag-peak-oil-denial","tag-peak-oil-matters","tag-skepticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=19295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19296,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19295\/revisions\/19296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=19295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=19295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=19295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}