Meaning maintenance drives science rejection

Zarzeczna, Natalia and Proulx, Travis ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3763-3138 2026. Meaning maintenance drives science rejection. Current Opinion in Psychology 67 , 102184. 10.1016/j.copsyc.2025.102184

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Abstract

Currently, ideologically-motivated discourses are actively undermining perceived value of science, with evidence-based policy-making being increasingly replaced with antiscience agendas shaped by political, spiritual, or conspiratorial ideologies. We propose that motivated science rejection is driven by compensatory mechanisms serving to maintain a coherent understanding of reality when this understanding conflicts with science. Drawing on the meaning maintenance model and the assumption of fluid compensation—any belief framework can be replaced with another to restore meaning—we argue that when science violates meaning, it is rejected in favour of an alternative framework of ideological beliefs, regardless of their epistemic validity. Interventions that align science with meaning-maintenance needs to minimise compensatory responses may prove promising in reducing science rejection.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Psychology
Additional Information:	License information from Publisher: LICENSE 1: URL: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/, Start Date: 2026-10-03
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	2352-250X
Last Modified:	05 Nov 2025 14:53
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/181595

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