Public Perception of Climate Change: The Importance of Knowledge and Cultural Worldviews

Abstract

The importance of knowledge for lay people's climate change concerns has been questioned in recent years, as it had been suggested that cultural values are stronger predictors of concern about climate change than knowledge. Studies that simultaneously measured knowledge related to climate change and cultural values have, however, been missing. We conducted a mail survey in the German-speaking part of Switzerland (N = 1,065). Results suggested that cultural worldviews and climate-related knowledge were significantly related with people's concern about climate change. Also, cultural worldviews and climate-relevant knowledge appeared important for people's willingness to change behaviors and to accept climate change policies. In addition, different types of knowledge were found to have different impacts on people's concern about climate change, their willingness to change behaviors, and their acceptance of policies about climate change. Specifically, causal knowledge significantly increased concern about climate change and willingness to support climate-friendly policies. We therefore concluded that risk communication should focus on causal knowledge, provided this knowledge does not threaten cultural values.

Beliefs and values explain international differences in perception of solar radiation management: insights from a cross-country survey

“…Respondents were first asked about their concern about climate change, to make sure that participants' responses on the climate change concern items were not affected by the information about SRM. The four items were taken from previous studies (Shi et al 2015;Tobler et al 2012), in slightly adapted form (e.g., BI worry that the state of the climate is changing^) (see Shi et al 2016). The internal reliability of the scale was very good (Cronbach's α = .94, N = 4).…”

Public Perception of Uncertainties Within Climate Change Science

“…Although the climate science community practically agrees that human activities are mainly responsible for the change in climate observed during the last 200 years, there are still a number of scientific uncertainties around climate change that remain, for example, around the impacts, affected regions, and time scales of the effects . Most research about the perception of climate change has focused on understanding people's concern and willingness to act . However, relatively little is known about how the public perceives scientific uncertainties around climate change.…”

How Climate Change Beliefs among U.S. Teachers Do and Do Not Translate to Students

“…Researchers attribute this persistent disconnect between scientific consensus and public perceptions to individuals’ heavy reliance on worldview and political ideology, which drive individuals to seek information from ideologically compatible sources [6] and shape their interpretation of new information [7]. Although worldview and political ideology are the overwhelming drivers of climate change perceptions [8], some research does suggest that climate-specific knowledge can predict acceptance of anthropogenic global warming as well as climate change concern among adolescents [9] and adults [10,11], indicating that climate education may have the potential to overcome ideologically-driven polarization. However, a recent survey of U.S. science teachers suggests that climate literacy is low and polarization is high among the very people who have the potential to leverage education to unite public opinion [12].…”