The following mostly relates to an article in New Scientist, State of Denial (15 May 2010 pp 35 - 45).
I am a sceptic, but I'm not a denier (Michael Shermer, pp 36 - 37)
"When I call myself a sceptic, I mean that I take a scientific approach to the evaluation of claims. A climate sceptic, for example, examines specific claims one by one, carefully considers the evidence for each, and is willing to follow the facts where ever they lead.
A climate denier has a position staked out in advance, and sorts through the data employing "confirmations bias" - the tendency to look for and find confirmatory evidence for pre-existing beliefs and ignore or dismiss the rest." (pp 36)
Whose conspiracy? (Debora MacKenzie, pp 38 - 41)
"What ever they are denying, denial movements have much in common with one another, not least the use of similar tactics.
All set themselves up as a courageous underdogs fighting a corrupt elite engaged in a conspiracy to suppress the truth or foist a malicious lie on ordinary people." (pp 38)
"He (Greg Poland) believes that instigators of denialist movements have more serious psychological problems than most of their followers "They display all the features of paranoid personality disorder", he says, including anger, intolerance of criticism, and what psychiatrists call a grandiose sense of their own importance." (pp 39)
"People who buy into one denialism may support others." (pp 40)
Giving life to a lie (Jim Giles, pp 42 - 43)
"Cascades can drive the popularity of everything from YouTube videos to medial procedures. They also mean that falsehoods can come to be believed simply because others believe in them." (pp 42)
How to be a Denialist (paraphrased pp 39)
1. Allege there's a conspiracy.
2. Use fake experts to support you story.
3. Cherry-pick the evidence.
4. Create impossible standards for your opponents.
5. Use logical fallacies.
6. Manufacture doubt.
Psychological evaluation of FER's has been done before on this discussion board, but it is good to have some reference material. This does seem all too familiar to anyone who has been on this discussion.