Why Won’t Right-Wingers Stand Up For Science?
A couple weeks back, I was at the 2025 Stand Up For Science protest. It was a protest against the Trump administration censoring words and cutting funds used in scientific research. It gave me hope seeing so many people out here advocating for a discipline devoted to knowledge. I’ve always been fascinated by science. It has taught me to think rationally and be open to changing my mind when shown new evidence. However, all of this has got me wondering: why does a lot of the political right seem so anti-science and resistant to changing their mind?
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Enter the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). This model says there are two ways to persuade someone into changing their attitude towards something: central and peripheral. The difference? The central route is more rational than the peripheral route. The central route requires someone to be motivated to and actually be able to engage thoughtfully.
With the ELM in mind, we have our first clue to the question. As it turns out, there is evidence that effortless thought promotes right-wing ideology. This isn’t to say that all right-wingers are stupid or that all left-wingers are deep thinkers, but that there just happens to be a discrepancy. So, it seems that this low effort to engage thoughtfully is what motivates right-wingers, meaning they’re less likely to take the central route. Also, for many, scientific research is not immediately relevant to their lives. And well, if something is irrelevant to you, you wouldn’t be as motivated to engage thoughtfully. There’s also a second clue that the ELM provides us. You see, science is complicated. Also, science is hard. You can probably guess where I’m going with this: it’s hard to engage with scientific rationale when you don’t understand it. Once again, this isn’t only a right-wing issue, but it does seem to be a pretty significantly more right-wing issue.
What can be done to fix this mess? Well, let’s look back at what the ELM tells us. If motivation and ability are so, so important, then we will need to find ways to make people more motivated and also find ways to give them the skills to engage with science critically. The magic word is education. We also need to make scientific research more accessible to the public, and not behind paywalls. As a left-winger who has engaged with right-wingers, I’ve also developed some strategies of my own. The one that I’ve found the most success with personally is empathy. Being empathetic towards someone will make them like you more, which may then make them more willing to listen to you. Understanding where someone is coming from and why they hold an attitude can go a long way. My hope is that, with all of these strategies, everyone will stand up for science!
