[9] Although the basic process of debiasing judgment can be viewed as a form of knowledge deficit,[10] development of the gateway belief model is based on research in cognitive and social psychology, mainly drawing on theories of heuristic information-processing, social norms, decision-making, and motivated cognition.
[19] The main premise of the gateway belief model is that this gap can be reduced by highlighting or communicating the actual degree of social or scientific consensus on an issue.
[22] For example, early research[23] showed that college students frequently misperceive the social consensus on campus binge drinking.
[25][26][27] Prominent examples include autism-vaccine controversies,[28] the causal link between smoking and lung cancer[29] and the role of carbon dioxide emissions in driving global warming.
[7][25][32] Vested-interest groups, sometimes referred to as "merchants of doubt",[31] deliberately try to undermine public understanding of the scientific consensus on these topics through organized disinformation campaigns.
The "cultural cognition of scientific consensus" thesis[34] advocated by Dan Kahan stands in contrast to the gateway belief model (GBM)[35] but has not been supported by empirical results.
[34] The empirical results of the gateway belief model contradict the prediction of the "cultural cognition of scientific consensus".
[36][37][38] Notably, an emphasis on scientific consensus does not backfire, and can reduce or neutralize belief polarization between (political) groups.
[36] Kahan has a notable on-going scholarly debate in the literature with van der Linden and Lewandowsky on the role of perceived consensus and cultural cognition.