Key Insight
Kahan examines the paradox that communicating about cultural cognition itself carries science communication risks — explaining motivated reasoning can trigger the defensive responses it describes.
When researchers present findings about cultural cognition to general audiences, they face a distinctive challenge. The theory predicts that people will evaluate evidence about culturally contested risks in ways that protect their group identities. But the theory of cultural cognition is itself a finding about a culturally contested domain.
Presenting research on identity-protective cognition can itself activate identity-protective cognition in the audience — making the communication of the science about science communication unusually difficult.
The practical implication is that communicators of cultural cognition research must be especially attentive to how their own perceived cultural identity shapes the reception of their message. A researcher perceived as culturally allied with one side of a political debate will find their findings dismissed as motivated reasoning by the other side.