PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

UNH research: On environment, Republicans closer to Independents than Tea Party

UNH research: On environment, Republicans closer to Independents than Tea Party
2014-12-02
(Press-News.org) DURHAM, N.H. - Environmentalists dispirited by the Republicans' dominance of the recent midterm elections can take heart: non-Tea Party Republicans' views on science and environmental issues are closer to those of Independents than to Tea Party supporters. That's the primary finding of new research by University of New Hampshire sociologists, published this week in the journal Environmental Politics.

"Across a range of science and environmental issues, non-Tea Party Republicans are more similar to Independents than they are to Tea Party supporters, and those divisions are surprisingly stable over the last four years," says UNH professor of sociology Lawrence Hamilton, first author of the paper, titled "A four-party view of US environmental concern."

While researchers - Hamilton a leader among them - have examined the interplay between education, political party and environmental concerns in recent years, this is the first study to separate out Tea Party supporters as a fourth party. Hamilton was surprised to find more significant divisions between Tea Party supporters and Republicans, and fewer divisions between non-Tea Party Republicans and Independents, on a range of questions about science and the environment.

The study also finds that Tea Party supporters with higher levels of education are less likely to trust scientists or accept scientific consensus on topics like evolution or climate change, which runs opposite to the positive effect education has on trust in science among Independents and Democrats.

Hamilton suggests that's because well-educated individuals actively acquire information, but they also choose their sources. Those who trust scientists are more influenced by research findings or major science organizations, but those who don't trust scientists know where to find alternative sources that better fit their beliefs. "People with more education could have greater awareness of their political leaders' and parties' positions, or take more initiative themselves to acquire information that reinforces their worldview," Hamilton says. "When it comes to climate change, for example, there are many excellent real science sources, but also many political or pseudo-science sources that sound convincing to some people."

The implications of these findings on politics, particularly within the Republican Party, are those that some pundits have already noted: "If you want to win the center, you should be closer to them than to either extreme," Hamilton says.

For scientists, the finding that non-Tea Party Republicans are more receptive to scientific findings is encouraging. Regarding the rejection of scientific results by others, however, "Public understanding is stalled," Hamilton says. "It's a bafflement to scientists, who are speaking as clearly as they can. But they're seeing that science communication gets caught up in a political spin cycle that can counter years of data with a few days of blogging."

INFORMATION:

Hamilton and co-author Kei Saito (a Ph.D. student in sociology at UNH) used data from 12 science, environment or climate questions asked on the Granite State Poll, conducted by the UNH Survey Center. Responses on national polls asking some of these same questions have been similar to those from New Hampshire, suggesting the New Hampshire results could provide a rough proxy. However, because the Granite State is more secular, better educated and less racially diverse compared with some other regions, Hamilton notes that some party contrasts might even be stronger elsewhere.

Environmental questions on the Granite State Poll are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation, and by the Carsey School of Public Policy and Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Sampling and interviews are conducted by the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire.

The University of New Hampshire, founded in 1866, is a world-class public research university with the feel of a New England liberal arts college. A land, sea, and space-grant university, UNH is the state's flagship public institution, enrolling 12,300 undergraduate and 2,200 graduate students.


[Attachments] See images for this press release:
UNH research: On environment, Republicans closer to Independents than Tea Party UNH research: On environment, Republicans closer to Independents than Tea Party 2

ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

CWRU study finds girls, boys affected differently by witnessing parental violence

2014-12-02
Witnessing violence by parents or a parent's intimate partner can trigger a chain of negative behaviors in some children that follows them from preschool to kindergarten and beyond, according to researchers at Case Western Reserve University. But girls and boys can be affected differently, researchers concluded. While girls tend to internalize their exposure to such violence, boys are more inclined to act out aggressively, said Megan R. Holmes, PhD, MSW, assistant professor at the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel School of Applied Social Sciences at Case Western Reserve ...

Preference for gravid females makes rare iguana consumption unsustainable

2014-12-02
The Valle de Aguán spiny-tailed iguana is a critically endangered species found in Honduras. A recent survey of people living in the region shows that, although residents are aware of the endangered status of the species, the iguana continues to be hunted for food. Of particular concern is the preference for the consumption of female iguanas that are gravid (carrying eggs in their body). "In this study we worked to gain a better understanding of how humans are harvesting the species for food," said Stesha Pasachnik, Ph.D., a lead researcher on the study and ...

TSRI scientists create new tool for exploring cells in 3-D

TSRI scientists create new tool for exploring cells in 3-D
2014-12-02
LA JOLLA, CA - December 1, 2014 - Researchers can now explore viruses, bacteria and components of the human body in more detail than ever before with software developed at The Scripps Research Institute (TSRI). In a study published December 1 in the journal Nature Methods, the researchers demonstrated how the software, called cellPACK, can be used to model viruses such as HIV. "We hope to ultimately increase scientists' ability to target any disease," said Art Olson, professor and Anderson Research Chair at TSRI who is senior author of the new study. Putting cellPACK ...

Why don't more minority students seek STEM careers? Ask them

Why dont more minority students seek STEM careers? Ask them
2014-12-02
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] -- If decades of effort to bring more underrepresented minority students into science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) fields were considered a grand chemistry experiment, then the modest results would suggest that while the formula may not be wrong, it may well be incomplete, according to a new article in the journal CBE-Life Sciences Education. "I don't necessarily want to say that we've been doing it wrong all along, it's just that there are other ideas we can bring in," said lead author Andrew G.Campbell, a Brown ...

Kessler Foundation researchers explore impact of traumatic brain injury on long-term memory

Kessler Foundation researchers explore impact of traumatic brain injury on long-term memory
2014-12-02
West Orange, NJ. December 1, 2014. Kessler Foundation researchers have authored a new article that provides insight into the variable impact of traumatic brain injury (TBI) on long-term memory. The article, "Working memory capacity links cognitive reserve with long-term memory in moderate to severe TBI: a translational approach," was epublished ahead of print on October 7 in the Journal of Neurology (10.1007/s00415-014-7523-4). The authors are Joshua Sandry, PhD, John DeLuca, PhD, and Nancy Chiaravalloti, PhD, of Kessler Foundation. This study was supported by grants ...

Lung cancer risk model refines decisions to screen

2014-12-02
A new method for determining lung cancer risk could more efficiently identify individuals for annual screening and catch more cancers early, according to a study published in this week's PLOS Medicine. The study, conducted by Martin Tammemägi of Brock University, Canada, and colleagues, evaluates a lung cancer risk prediction model and identifies a risk threshold for selecting individuals for annual lung cancer screening. Computed Tomography (CT) screening can identify lung tumors while they are still treatable, and the US National Lung Screening Trial (NLST) found ...

Brain representations of social thoughts accurately predict autism diagnosis

Brain representations of social thoughts accurately predict autism diagnosis
2014-12-02
PITTSBURGH--Psychiatric disorders -- including autism -- are characterized and diagnosed based on a clinical assessment of verbal and physical behavior. However, brain imaging and cognitive neuroscience are poised to provide a powerful advanced new tool. Carnegie Mellon University researchers have created brain-reading techniques to use neural representations of social thoughts to predict autism diagnoses with 97 percent accuracy. This establishes the first biologically based diagnostic tool that measures a person's thoughts to detect the disorder that affects many children ...

People putting their lives at risk by dismissing cancer symptoms

2014-12-02
People could be putting their lives at risk by dismissing potential warning signs of cancer as less serious symptoms, according to a Cancer Research UK-funded study* published in PLOS ONE today (Tuesday). More than half (53 per cent) of 1,700** people who completed a health questionnaire said they had experienced at least one red-flag cancer 'alarm' symptom during the previous three months***. But only two per cent of them thought that cancer was a possible cause. Researchers sent the questionnaire listing 17 symptoms**** - including 10 widely-publicised potential cancer ...

New study: 55 percent of carbon in Amazonian indigenous territories and protected lands may be at risk

2014-12-02
LIMA--(2 December 2014) A new peer-reviewed study, released today at the start of the UN climate conference in Peru, reveals the unprecedented amount of carbon stored within the nine-nation network of Amazonian indigenous territories and protected natural areas. Accepted for publication in Carbon Management, the paper entitled, "Forest Carbon in Amazonia: The Unrecognized Contributions of Indigenous Territories and Protected Natural Areas," suggests that protecting the vast amount of carbon stored above ground in the forests of indigenous and protected lands - totaling ...

Re-focusing investors' attention away from losses can reduce negative emotional response

2014-12-02
COLUMBIA, Mo. - According to a recent report from the Federal Reserve Board, 31 percent of Americans surveyed said they had no retirement savings, and almost half were not actively thinking about planning for retirement. Studies show that many Americans do not invest because they distrust the market and fear financial losses. Now, a University of Missouri researcher has found a way for financial planners to help decrease their clients' worries, which stem from the fear of losing money. Michael Guillemette, an assistant professor in the MU College of Human Environmental ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

Mission accomplished for the “T2T” Hong Kong Bauhinia Genome Project

[Press-News.org] UNH research: On environment, Republicans closer to Independents than Tea Party