A Conceptual Critique of the Cultural Cognition Thesis

2015/11/16 by Sander van der Linden · 83 citations
Psychology · Social Sciences · #Cultural Differences and Values #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Social and Intergroup Psychology #Cognition #Ideology #Politics #Sociology #Social cognition #Epistemology #Social psychology #Psychology #Social science #Cognitive science #Political science

paper · doi:10.1177/1075547015614970

published in Science Communication 38(1), 128-138 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2015/11/16 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28

Abstract

I offer a critique of the cultural cognition thesis. I argue that cultural cognition is not a theory about culture or cognition per se; rather, it is a thesis that aims to explain why specific American groups with opposing political views disagree over a select number of contemporary science issues. I highlight that cultural cognition can be characterized as a “strange loop” as it frequently defines its core theoretical properties (e.g., group, culture, political ideology) in terms of one another. The approach also overgeneralizes specific findings from social psychology and underappreciates the many audiences that comprise the general “public”.

Citations

• Biased assimilation and attitude polarization: The effects of prior theories on subsequently considered evidence.
• The Influence of Partisan Motivated Reasoning on Public Opinion
• Boomerang Effects in Science Communication
• The weirdest people in the world?
• Toward a universal psychological structure of human values.
• The Partisan Brain
• Identifying Culture-Specifics in the Content and Structure of Values
• The case for motivated reasoning.
• Effects of Evidence on Attitudes: Is Polarization the Norm?

Cited by

• Cultural theory of risk [wikipedia]

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