A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change

Dunlap, Riley E.; McCright, Araon M.

doi:10.3200/envt.50.5.26-35

Cited by 470 publications

(376 citation statements)

References 7 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

344

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Beyond the predictable impact of demographic factors (11)(12)(13), our results indicate that the index for local changes in climate (which may proxy an individual's climate experience) can account for a significant fraction of county-level variations in the percentage of the population that believes that "global warming is happening." These results are tempered by our finding that belief is shaped by more recent experiences.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Spatial heterogeneity of climate change as an experiential basis for skepticism

Kaufmann

Mann

Gopal

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We postulate that skepticism about climate change is partially caused by the spatial heterogeneity of climate change, which exposes experiential learners to climate heuristics that differ from the global average. This hypothesis is tested by formalizing an index that measures local changes in climate using station data and comparing this index with survey-based model estimates of county-level opinion about whether global warming is happening. Results indicate that more stations exhibit cooling and warming than predicted by random chance and that spatial variations in these changes can account for spatial variations in the percentage of the population that believes that "global warming is happening." This effect is diminished in areas that have experienced more record low temperatures than record highs since 2005. Together, these results suggest that skepticism about climate change is driven partially by personal experiences; an accurate heuristic for local changes in climate identifies obstacles to communicating ongoing changes in climate to the public and how these communications might be improved.climate change | climate skepticism | experiential learning | recency weighting | local climate D espite overwhelming scientific evidence, a significant fraction of the US population does not believe that climate is changing as proxied by a general warming, (1, 2), which we term skepticism. This skepticism is likely caused by many reasons, including two psychological phenomena: climate change is hard to perceive via everyday experience, and climate change is ancillary to everyday concerns (3-6). Under these conditions, experiential learning tends to be more powerful than statistical results (4, 7-10).Here, we test the hypothesis that skepticism about climate change is partially caused by variations in the direction (warming or cooling) and magnitude of climate change over space (herein spatial heterogeneity), which expose experiential learners to climate heuristics that differ from the global average, by formalizing a simple index that measures local changes in climate and comparing this index with survey-based model estimates of countylevel opinion about whether global warming is happening (1). Beyond the predictable impact of demographic factors (11-13), our results indicate that the index for local changes in climate (which may proxy an individual's climate experience) can account for a significant fraction of county-level variations in the percentage of the population that believes that "global warming is happening." These results are tempered by our finding that belief is shaped by more recent experiences. Specifically, belief is diminished by record low temperatures since 2005. Together, these results suggest that skepticism about climate change is driven partially by personal experiences; an accurate heuristic for local changes in climate identifies obstacles to and potential solutions for communicating ongoing changes in climate to the public.Previous analyses calculate climate heuristics by comparing temperat...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 98%

Spatial heterogeneity of climate change as an experiential basis for skepticism

Kaufmann

Mann

Gopal

et al. 2016

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Some of these studies show that public support for policies to limit climate change is associated with environmental worldviews and fundamental values (Dietz, Dan, & Shwom, 2007;Dunlap & Van Liere, 1978;Dunlap et al, 2000;Nilsson, von Borgstede, & Biel, 2004;Shwom, Bidwell, Dan, & Dietz, 2010;Steg, Dreijerink, & Abrahamse, 2005;Stern et al, 1999; and suggest that efforts to frame the climate problem in terms of widely held environmental values might increase policy support. Opposition to such policies is also linked to values and political ideology (e.g., Dunlap & McCright, 2008;Leiserowitz, Maibach, & Roser-Renouf, 2008).…”

Section: Policy Changementioning

confidence: 99%

Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change.

Stern¹

2011

American Psychologist

247

184

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Council, 2010a). The human activities that directly produce physical changes in Earth's heat balance, such as burning fossil fuels, clearing forests, and raising cattle, are driven in turn by other human activities, including government policies, the growth and migration of human populations, economic and technological development, and the behavior of individuals and households as consumers, members of organizations, and citizens. These actions are influenced in turn by human attitudes, predispositions, beliefs, and social and economic structures (National Research Council, 1992; Swim et al., 2011, this issue). This article discusses what psychology has contributed and can contribute to limiting the magnitude of climate change by altering the human activities that affect it. A Framework for Psychological ContributionsPsychology can contribute to limiting climate change by improving understanding of climate-relevant individual, household, and organizational behaviors that affect climate change and the many personal, social, economic, institutional, policy, and social-structural factors that affect these behaviors, as well as by helping devise ways to turn that understanding into effective interventions. Most of the efforts of psychologists, and most of this review, focus on consumer behaviors. These can be conveniently divided into choices that affect emissions of greenhouse gases directly through household purchases of energy and choices that affect emissions indirectly through the purchase of goods and services that affect the climate through their production, distribution, and disposal. This article focuses mainly on the direct effects because they are large (about 40% of carbon dioxide emissions in the United States; Bin & Dowlatabadi, 2005) and because more is known about the behavioral factors that drive those emissions. It also briefly discusses psychological factors in organizational behavior and in acceptance of policies and technologies.

show abstract

“…Other researchers have noted that ideological predispositions can filter how people process information (Krosnick et al, 2006;Shwom et al, 2008;Wood and Vedlitz, 2007). Individuals with conservative ideologies tend to discount anthropogenic climate change (Dietz et al, 2007;Dunlap and McCright, 2008;Pew Research Center, 2006.…”

Section: Predictors Coef Se P (Z)mentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional variation in perceptions about climate change

Hamilton

Keim

2009

Intl Journal of Climatology

200

180

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

A 2007 survey covering rural areas in nine US states provides data on perceived local impacts of climate change. Perceptions vary from region to region, with a pattern suggesting links to real climate -specifically to winter warming in snow country. A multivariate analysis using mixed-effects ordered logit regression confirms a significant perception-temperature relationship, net of individual background and ideological characteristics, and of regional variations. These findings invite more detailed research.

show abstract

A Widening Gap: Republican and Democratic Views on Climate Change

Cited by 470 publications

References 7 publications

Spatial heterogeneity of climate change as an experiential basis for skepticism

Spatial heterogeneity of climate change as an experiential basis for skepticism

Contributions of psychology to limiting climate change.

Regional variation in perceptions about climate change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About