대구외고 2학년 기말고사 대비(The Age of Disbelief)-(3)

Struggling for Truth

[20~27] 다음 글을 읽고, 물음에 답하시오.

[K] Sometimes scientists fall short of the ideals of the scientific method. Especially in biomedical research, there’s a disturbing trend toward results that can’t be reproduced outside the lab that found them. Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, worries about the “secret sauce”—specialized procedures and customized software—that researchers don’t share with their colleagues. But he still has faith in science.

[L] “Science will find the truth,” Collins says. “It may get it wrong the first time and maybe the second time, but ultimately it will find the truth.” That aspect of science is another thing a lot of people have trouble with. To some climate change skeptics, for example, the fact that a few scientists in the 1970s were worried (quite reasonably, it seemed at the time) about the possibility of a coming ice age is enough to   (A)   the concern about global warming now.

[M] In 2014, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which consists of hundreds of scientists, released its fifth report in the past 25 years. This one repeated louder and clearer than ever the consensus of the world’s scientists: The planet’s surface temperature has risen by about 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit in the past 130 years. Moreover, human actions—including the burning of fossil fuels—are extremely likely to have been the dominant cause of the warming since the mid-20th century. Many people, however,   (B)   doubts about that consensus.

[N] Americans, for example, fall into two basic camps, says Dan Kahan of Yale University. Those who are more egalitarian and community-minded are generally suspicious of industry. They tend to think it’s up to something dangerous that calls for government regulation; they’re likely to see the risks of climate change. In contrast, people with a hierarchical and individualistic mindset respect leaders of industry and don’t like government interfering in their affairs. They tend to reject warnings about climate change because they know that accepting them could lead to some kind of tax or regulation to limit emissions.

[O] In the United States, an individual’s view on climate change tends to identify them as belonging to one or the other of these two opposing tribes. When we argue about it, Kahan says, we’re actually arguing about who we are, what our crowd is. We’re thinking: People like us believe this. People like that do not believe this. For a hierarchical individualist, Kahan says, it’s not irrational to reject established climate science. This is because accepting it wouldn’t change the world, but it might get them thrown out of their tribe. Science appeals to our rational brain, but our beliefs are motivated largely by emotion—and the biggest motivation is remaining tight with our peers.