Public Support for Climate Change Policy: Consistency in the Influence of Values and Attitudes Over Time and Across Specific Policy Alternatives

Abstract

This study examines the factors that explain public preferences for a set of climate change policy alternatives. While scholarly work indicates a relationship between attitudes and values on views toward specific issues, the literature often examines general support for issues rather than specific policy proposals. Consequently, it is unclear the extent to which these attitudes and values affect specific policy considerations. This project examines public support for five climate change policy options in two national surveys taken three years apart. The empirical analysis reveals that time is a factor and that those who are liberal, have strong ecological values, report greater concern for climate change, and trust experts are consistently more supportive of the climate policy options considered here. The results shed new light on the nuanced views of the American public toward climate change.

Bureaucratic expertise, overconfidence, and policy choice

“…We use the variables analyzed in the previous section as control variables, as they are often found to be associated with individual climate policy preferences (Mumpower et al, 2015;Stoutenborough, Bromley-Trujillo, & Vedlitz, 2014), with the exception of Job Relevance/Experience. We use the variables analyzed in the previous section as control variables, as they are often found to be associated with individual climate policy preferences (Mumpower et al, 2015;Stoutenborough, Bromley-Trujillo, & Vedlitz, 2014), with the exception of Job Relevance/Experience.…”

Revisiting River Management Options: Stakeholders, Levees, and the Public Policy Controversies of Degraded Infrastructure

“…When asked to evaluate any give situation, attitudes help to identify the appropriate response. Research into individual policy preferences consistently find that various attitudes like ideology and issue‐specific beliefs predict policy support (e.g., Lubell, ; Stoutenborough, Bromley‐Trujillo, & Vedlitz, ).…”

“…To retain the original, ordered nature of the data, it is common to collapse the scale for the dependent variable (e.g. Robinson, Liu, Stoutenborough, & Vedlitz, ; Stoutenborough et al, ; Stoutenborough, Bromley‐Trujillo, & Vedlitz, ). To alleviate unpopulated bin problems, the reinforce levee variable collapsed the “unsure” and “support” responses to create a three‐point scale.…”

“…These characteristics are commonly found to predict policy preferences. However, the directionality of these predictors varies from issue to issue, even within the same general policy domain (Stoutenborough et al, ). Consequently, predicting the directionality of these indicators is difficult.…”

Knowledge, Information, and Views of Climate Change: An Examination of Coastal Stakeholders along the Gulf of Mexico

“…If the public is unable to fully grasp the situation, it is unreasonable to expect that they will come to the correct, or, at the very least, most efficient policy solution. Additionally, if the public lacks a clear understanding of the problem, they are going to be less likely to support policy proposals [6], particularly if those proposals carry rather large costs.…”