Science by social media: Attitudes towards climate change are mediated by perceived social consensus

Abstract

Internet blogs have become an important platform for the discussion of many scientific issues, including climate change. Blogs, and in particular the comment sections of blogs, also play a major role in the dissemination of contrarian positions that question mainstream climate science. The effect of this content on people’s attitudes is not fully understood. In particular, it is unknown how the interaction between the content of blog posts and blog comments affects readers’ attitudes. We report an experiment that orthogonally varied those two variables using blog posts and comments that either did, or did not, support the scientific consensus on climate change. We find that beliefs are partially shaped by readers’ perception of how widely an opinion expressed in a blog post appears to be shared by other readers. The perceived social consensus among readers, in turn, is determined by whether blog comments endorse or reject the contents of a post. When comments reject the content, perceived reader consensus is lower than when comments endorse the content. The results underscore the importance of perceived social consensus on opinion formation.

Climate Change Risk Perceptions of Audiences in the Climate Change Blogosphere

“…For the first time, a variation of the CCRPM will be applied to a media audience instead of the general public. Therefore, we expect to find slightly different results, as skepticism is more prevalent in the climate change blogosphere than amongst the general public [1,7,24,25]. Moreover, this audience is highly engaged with climate change in comparison to the general public [3].…”

“…Over the years, climate change blogs have become a popular outlet in which climate science, politics, policy, and other topics are discussed [1]. Especially since the 'climategate' episode, which significantly influenced public trust and opinion [2], blogs played a prominent role in the global climate discussion, influencing scientific, political, and media discourse [3][4][5][6].…”

“…Some of these bloggers are part of a greater network of scientists, conservative think tanks, and private corporations that intentionally spread misinformation on climate change to delay action [8][9][10]. This network uses blogs as one of their main communication outlets [1]. Next to that, there are various communities of bloggers that support the scientific consensus on climate change ("climate mainstream bloggers") [7], for example climate scientists that blog to correct misinformation on climate change [11].…”

“…A user thread analysis of the Air Vent blog, in which readers commented about their various background and how they became interested in climate science, reveals that climate change blogs were important in forming climate skepticism [17]. In a recent experiment, Lewandowsky et al [1] find that climate blogs that either do or do not support the scientific consensus can partially shape public opinion on the issue. Although research on climate skepticism and the rejection of climate science makes clear that blogs can exert significant effects on public opinion, to the best of our knowledge, no other studies have systematically assessed audiences' climate change risk perceptions and the socio-psychological factors that explain these perceptions.…”

“…Climate change poses a "unique" risk [18], as the causes are invisible and the impacts are temporal and often geographically distant [19]. Because the notion of "risk" is socially constructed [20,21], blogs can act as a powerful conduit, shaping public risk perception through both posts and subsequent discussion [1].…”