Support for climate policy and societal action are linked to perceptions about scientific agreement

被引:277
作者
Ding, Ding [1 ,2 ]
Maibach, Edward W. [3 ]
Zhao, Xiaoquan [3 ]
Roser-Renouf, Connie
Leiserowitz, Anthony [4 ]
机构
[1] Univ Calif San Diego, Dept Family & Prevent Med, La Jolla, CA 92093 USA
[2] San Diego State Univ, Grad Sch Publ Hlth, San Diego, CA 92123 USA
[3] George Mason Univ, Dept Commun, Ctr Climate Change Commun, Fairfax, VA 22030 USA
[4] Yale Univ, Sch Forestry & Environm Studies, Yale Project Climate Change Commun, New Haven, CT 06405 USA
关键词
D O I
10.1038/NCLIMATE1295
中图分类号
X [环境科学、安全科学];
学科分类号
08 ; 0830 ;
摘要
Although a majority of US citizens think that the president and Congress should address global warming, only a minority think it should be a high priority(1). Previous research has shown that four key beliefs about climate change-that it is real, human caused, serious and solvable-are important predictors of support for climate policies(2). Other research has shown that organized opponents of climate legislation have sought to undermine public support by instilling the belief that there is widespread disagreement among climate scientists about these points(3)-a view shown to be widely held by the public(1). Here we examine if this misperception is consequential. We show that the misperception is strongly associated with reduced levels of policy support and injunctive beliefs ( that is, beliefs that action should be taken to mitigate global warming). The relationship is mediated by the four previously identified key beliefs about climate change, especially people's certainty that global warming is occurring. In short, people who believe that scientists disagree on global warming tend to feel less certain that global warming is occurring, and show less support for climate policy. This suggests the potential importance of correcting the widely held public misperception about lack of scientific agreement on global warming.
引用
收藏
页码:462 / 466
页数:5
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