The Cultural Cognition Project is a group of scholars interested in studying how cultural values shape public risk perceptions and related policy beliefs. Cultural cognition refers to the tendency of individuals to conform their beliefs about disputed matters of fact (e.g., whether global warming is a serious threat; whether the death penalty deters murder; whether gun control makes society more safe or less) to values that define their cultural identities. Project members are using the methods of various disciplines -- including social psychology, anthropology, communications, and political science -- to chart the impact of this phenomenon and to identify the mechanisms through which it operates. The Project also has an explicit normative objective: to identify processes of democratic decisionmaking by which society can resolve culturally grounded differences in belief in a manner that is both congenial to persons of diverse cultural outlooks and consistent with sound public policymaking.

Below are examples of CCP studies and research projects.

Cultural Cognition of Scientific Consensus

Why doesn't "scientific consensus" settle disputes about climate change and other issues? The answer, a CCP experimental study suggests, is not that only some citizens view scientific opinion as important, but rather that citizens of diverse cultural outlooks form different perceptions of what most scientists believe.

Are We Watching a Game?

In debates over climate change, gun control, the HPV vaccine, and myriad other risks, Americans respond to scientific data in much the same way sports fans react to disputed calls on the playing field--cheering or booing based on how the evidence affects their "team." A paper published in Nature links this dynamic to cultural cognition and addresses what can be done to counteract it.

HPV Vaccine Risk Perceptions 

Is the controversy over the mandatory vaccination of school girls for HPV a cultural one? Yes, because what and whom individuals believe about the risks and benefits of the vaccine, experimental data show, are shaped by their cultural commitments. This is the conclusion of a CCP study published in Law & Human Behavior.

Supreme Court on Use of Deadly Force

Based on a video shot from inside a police cruiser, the U.S. Supreme court concluded "no reasonable juror" could find that the risk posed by a fleeing motorist did not warrant deadly force to stop him. But a study by the Cultural Cognition Project published in the Harvard Law Review finds perceptions of risk among persons who viewed the tape varied dramatically with those persons' cultural worldviews.

Gay and Lesbian Parenting 

A majority of Americans believe that custody issues (including adoption placement) should be resolved in favor of the best interests of the child, but they disagree over what impact gay or lesbian parenting has on child welfare. In research funded by a grant from the Arcus Foundation, the Cultural Cognition Project is examining how cultural predispositions affect factual beliefs about the child-welfare effects of gay and lesbian parenting, and how those beliefs shape public preferences regarding law and policy.

Nanotechnology Risk Perceptions

As a component of its NSF-funded project on the mechanisms of cultural cognition, the Cultural Cogntion Project, in collaboration with the Project on Emerging Nanotechnologies, is conducting research to determine what people think about nanotechnology and how the respond to information about it. Two major experimental studies have already been completed, and others are underway. 

The 2nd National Risk and Culture Study

Individuals' expectations about the policy solution to global warming strongly influences their willingness to credit information about climate change. When told the solution to global warming is increased antipollution measures, persons of individualistic and hierarchic worldviews become less willing to credit information suggesting that global warming exists, is caused by humans, and poses significant societal dangers. Persons with such outlooks are more willing to credit the same information when told the solution to global warming is increased reliance on nuclear power generation.