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Guest essay by Eric Worrall
A study by Daniel A. Chapman and Brian Lickel, of the Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, University of Massachusetts Amherst, claims that skeptics are less likely to contribute to a relief appeal for a natural disaster, if the appeal blames the disaster on climate change.
The abstract of the study;
This research examined whether framing a natural disaster as the product of climate change impacts attitudes toward disaster victims and humanitarian relief. Participants (n = 211) read an article about a famine caused by severe droughts, with one condition attributing the droughts to climate change and the other condition made no mention of climate change. All participants then responded to measures of justifications for or against providing aid, attitudes toward the possibility of donating, and climate change beliefs. As predicted, those high in climate change skepticism reported greater justifications for not helping the victims when the disaster was attributed to climate change. Additional moderated mediation analyses showed there was an indirect effect of climate change framing on attitudes toward donating through donation justifications.
Read more: http://spp.sagepub.com/content/early/2015/06/15/1948550615590448.abstract
It seems obvious to me why this is happening. Charity is a leap of faith – you give, because you want to help, and because you believe the person asking for your help is credible. Asking a skeptic to help victims of climate change, is a bit like asking someone to help victims of the tooth fairy. It undermines the credibility of your appeal.
This is why I refuse to donate in any way shape or form to the relief organisation, “World Vision” as they have framed famines and droughts in Africa, etc as being products of Climate Change. I sent them an email outlining my position and they replied saying that they base their statements on best scientific knowledge. I told them the’d never ever get another cent from me.
Disaster appeals that are linked directly to AGW can be supported financially by the 97% of the worlds scientists who apparently believe in it. I can keep my money.
I could have told you that. If you tell me that someone hit by a Cat 4 cyclone was a “victim of climate change” you’re going to get told “F*** off – and by the way never call me again, your org is on a life ban.”
I don’t need to hoover $gazillions of taxpayer money to research the fact. You insult the intelligence of people and overtly lie to them, then demand money. (Sort of like the Gillard grubiment’s “Carbon” tax. And we know how popular that was.)
If liberals really cared about the poor, wouldn’t they have created something like a national Higher Optional Tax where people can voluntarily pay more in taxes and where this extra revenue would be used specifically for making social programs better and/or creating addition ones?
Hey Chapman and Lickle, why don’t you two ‘experts’ do a study on why liberals haven’t created an optional tax structure like this? Bet the results (if they aren’t adjusted, massaged, or faked) would discomfort you both…
I’ve stopped giving to most charities – too many now seem to have greens at the helm or in the background and I simply don’t trust that the money is going where they claim it is going. I understand Red Cross is still clean though (I hope so, or I’ll stop giving altogether).
Emotional blackmail just gets my back up.
@Stevan Makarevich
Please! The tooth fairy was a “he”, not a “she”.
That looks like the usual Hollywood misinformation. You must stop believing that American films portray reality!
The definitive Tooth Fairy job description (all of whom are female) can be found in Terry Pratchet’s ‘Hogfather’….
I cancelled my monthly subscription payment to Oxfam when they started saying silly things about climate change. A few weeks later I got a call from a young man asking me why. I pointed out that their commitment to ‘halting climate change’ was right there on the front page of their website, and he was very surprised. He assured me that they didn’t really think that at all. I told him that he should get them to take it down, then, and get back to me when it was done. I’m still waiting.
In general, leftists are far more willing to donate government funds than their own, and are far out-donated by conservatives on individual or group bases.