Zarzeczna, Natalia and Proulx, Travis (2026) Meaning maintenance drives science rejection. Current Opinion in Psychology, 67. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102184
Zarzeczna, Natalia and Proulx, Travis (2026) Meaning maintenance drives science rejection. Current Opinion in Psychology, 67. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102184
Zarzeczna, Natalia and Proulx, Travis (2026) Meaning maintenance drives science rejection. Current Opinion in Psychology, 67. DOI https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102184
Abstract
Currently, ideologically-motivated discourses are actively undermining perceived value of science, with evidence-based policy-making being increasingly replaced with antiscience agendas shaped by political, spiritual, or conspiratorial ideologies. We propose that motivated science rejection is driven by compensatory mechanisms serving to maintain a coherent understanding of reality when this understanding conflicts with science. Drawing on the meaning maintenance model and the assumption of fluid compensation—any belief framework can be replaced with another to restore meaning—we argue that when science violates meaning, it is rejected in favour of an alternative framework of ideological beliefs, regardless of their epistemic validity. Interventions that align science with meaning-maintenance needs to minimise compensatory responses may prove promising in reducing science rejection.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Subjects: | Z Bibliography. Library Science. Information Resources > ZR Rights Retention |
| Divisions: | Faculty of Science and Health > Psychology, Department of |
| SWORD Depositor: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Depositing User: | Unnamed user with email elements@essex.ac.uk |
| Date Deposited: | 23 Oct 2025 16:10 |
| Last Modified: | 23 Oct 2025 16:11 |
| URI: | http://repository.essex.ac.uk/id/eprint/41629 |
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