Edward W Maibach

George Mason University | GMU · Center for Climate Change Communication (4C)

The 2017 March for Science was an international march organized in response to concerns over the Trump administration’s misuse of science that drew unprecedented numbers of supporters as well as attention from the media, celebrities, and political figures. The March’s turnout and publicity begs the question: what motivates people to defend science?...

Large language models (LLMs) have demonstrated their potential in social science research by emulating human perceptions and behaviors, a concept referred to as algorithmic fidelity. This study assesses the algorithmic fidelity and bias of LLMs by utilizing two nationally representative climate change surveys. The LLMs were conditioned on demograph...

Trust in climate science provides the foundation for evidence-based policymaking on climate change mitigation and adaptation. If the IPCC and climate scientists are right, global decarbonization should be one of humanity's top priorities. Yet, most countries are not on track to meet the emissions reduction goal ratified under the Paris Agreement an...

Curbing the worst impacts of global climate change will require rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuel across all sectors of the economy. This transition will also yield substantial co-benefits, as fossil fuel combustion releases harmful pollutants into the air. In this article, we present an analysis of the co-benefits to health and health-ca...

Introduction As emotions are strong predictors of climate policy support, we examined multiple discrete emotions that people experience in reaction to various types of information about climate change: its causes, the scientific consensus, its impacts, and solutions. Specifically, we assessed the relationships between four types of messages and fiv...

Background. Climate change is already harming human health, both directly and indirectly. Physical and rehabilitation medicine professionals are at the frontlines of addressing climate change and health, as their patients are particularly vulnerable to these health harms. It is therefore important to understand how these health professionals unders...

Accelerating the decarbonisation of local and national economies is a profound public health imperative. As trusted voices within communities around the world, health professionals and health organisations have enormous potential to influence the social and policy landscape in support of decarbonisation. We assembled a multidisciplinary, gender-bal...

Political advocacy is arguably the most powerful form of action that citizens concerned about climate change can take. One motivator for political advocacy is the perception that there is a social norm (i.e., inherently understood social rules and standards that serve to guide social behaviors) for doing so. Using nationally representative survey d...

Because of the world's dependence on fossil fuels, climate change and air pollution are profoundly harming both human and planetary health. Fortunately, climate solutions are also health solutions, and they present both local and global opportunities to foster cleaner, healthier, and safer communities. In this review, we briefly discuss the human h...

Public attitudes toward climate change influence climate and energy policies and guide individual mitigation and adaptation behaviors. Over the last decade, as scientific certainty about the causes and impacts of, and solutions to the climate crisis has increased, cities, states, and regions in the United States have pursued diverse policy strategi...

A science-based understanding of climate change and potential mitigation and adaptation options can provide decision makers with important guidance in making decisions about how best to respond to the many challenges inherent in climate change. In this review we provide an evidence-based heuristic for guiding efforts to share science-based informat...

As urgency grows to address global warming, younger generations can play a strategic role in mobilizing communities that have generally been more opposed to climate action and policy, such as political and religious conservatives in the United States. American evangelical Protestants-and white evangelicals in particular-are the largest religious gr...

Plain Language Summary In this Commentary we share results from a global risks perceptions survey of a community of scientists and compare findings with a similar survey focusing on the business community. We find that the many global impacts of the COVID‐19 pandemic raised risk perceptions of infectious diseases, but both the surveyed business and...

In 2016, concern among physicians about the health harms of climate change led to the founding of the Medical Society Consortium on Climate and Health, a coalition of medical societies and ultimately other health organizations, to publicly sound the alarm and address profound and growing health and equity consequences of climate change. Building on...

Because of the world’s dependence on fossil fuels, climate change and air pollution are profoundly harming both human and planetary health. Fortunately, climate solutions are also health solutions, and they present both local and global opportunities to foster cleaner, healthier, and safer communities. Social science research provides an evidence-b...

Americans increasingly accept that global warming is happening and a serious threat. Using secondary data from national probability surveys of the US adult population and preregistered hypotheses, we explore how and why Americans self-report changing their minds about global warming. Common reasons included learning more about the issue, hearing or...

Prior research suggests that climate stories are rarely reported by local news outlets in the United States. As part of the Climate Matters in the Newsroom project—a program for climate-reporting resources designed to help journalists report local climate stories—we conducted a series of local climate-reporting workshops for journalists to support...

Climate change poses serious threats to public health and is exacerbating health inequities. Policy changes are essential to mitigate climate change impacts on human and planetary health. The purpose was to describe recommendations by the Policy and Advocacy Subgroup of the Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) Climate Change, Behavior Change and He...

A message-testing experiment assessed the effectiveness of targeted video messages in changing six audience segments’ climate change understanding and concern. Participants viewed one of four short videos addressing their segment’s informational needs, as identified by survey data on their segment’s climate change beliefs. Segments that are skeptic...

This research letter investigates the role of feelings of responsibility to reduce climate change (i.e., “felt responsibility”) as an antecedent to climate change related political behaviors and intentions, including willingness to join a campaign, likelihood of supporting pro-climate presidential candidates, and past contact with elected officials...

Strategic communication requires the identification and understanding of target audiences for tailored communication. The Global Warming’s Six Americas analysis segments the U.S. public into six distinct, but internally consistent audiences, who each respond differently to the issue of climate change. The segments include the Alarmed, Concerned, Ca...

Background: Climate change represents a threat to the health of all Americans. We wanted to know if federal representatives are informing their constituents about this risk. Methods: To answer this question, we reviewed the official websites of all 100 United States senators to determine if they made statements about health, climate change, and the...

While the most promising climate change solutions have yet to be widely implemented, journalists are well-positioned to ensure that solutions are on the public's agenda. Here, we investigate the climate solutions reporting interests and practices of environmental journalists (N = 592), paying particular attention to negative emissions technologies...

Chinn and Hart (2021) argue that their experiment on the effects of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change revealed “mixed” and “inconsistent findings”. We note that Chinn and Hart (2021) provide clear and consistent evidence that the scientific consensus message has positive indirect effects on climate beliefs, attitudes, and sup...

National polls reveal stark and growing political divisions on the issue of climate change within the United States. However, few studies have explored whether these trends generalize to communities of color, who experience disproportionate environmental risks. Synthesizing over a decade of nationally representative survey data (2008–2019; N = 23,7...

Health professionals are in a unique position to accelerate creation of policies to mitigate and adapt to the public health emergency that is the climate crisis. At the forefront of the burgeoning climate and health movement are state and national health professional networks that are educating their colleagues and the lay public about the gravity...

In 2015, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommended that the health effects of climate change be incorporated into the existing anticipatory guidance framework. Despite this recommendation, there are only anecdotal accounts of pediatricians offering climate change counseling, and no literature evaluates such counseling effectiveness in an...

Chinn and Hart (2021) conclude that communicating the scientific consensus on climate change causes psychological reactance. Here we identify several issues that cast doubt on these findings. First and foremost, the authors replicate the finding from van der Linden, Maibach, et al. (2019) that consensus messages do not increase perceptions of manip...

In light of the disproportionate impacts of climate change on marginalized communities, there is merit in seeking to understand any differences in climate change beliefs and reporting behaviors for news professionals of non-White ethnicities. Unsurprisingly, considering the greater environmental hazards that many minority communities contend with,...

Previous research has shown that providing information about the health consequences of climate change can increase climate change issue engagement and support for mitigation policies. Here, we extend that research by testing the motivational value of three categories of climate information (termed information categories): health consequences of cl...

Public perceptions of climate change in the United States are deeply rooted in cultural values and political identities. Yet, as the public experiences extreme weather and other climate change-related impacts, their perceptions of the issue may shift. Here, we explore whether, when, and where local climate trends have already influenced perceived e...

Health professionals have the potential to address the health threats posed by climate change in many ways. This study sought to understand the factors that influence health professionals’ willingness to engage in climate advocacy. We hypothesized and tested a model with six antecedent factors predicting willingness to engage in advocacy for streng...

Background: Parental attitudes about vaccinating themselves against COVID-19 may offer insights into their attitudes about vaccinating their children when the time comes. The objective was to identify parents with high COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy to prioritize for vaccine education interventions. Methods. We conducted multiple logistic regression on...

Climate change arguably represents one of the greatest global health threats of our time. Health professionals can advocate for global efforts to reduce emissions and protect people from climate change; however, evidence of their willingness to do so remains scarce. In this Viewpoint, we report findings from a large, multinational survey of health...

A stable climate is the most fundamental determinant of human health. Therefore, the goal of the Paris Agreement—limiting global warming to no more than 2 degrees Celsius—is arguably humanity's most important public health goal. To accomplish this goal, nearly all nations must greatly increase the ambition of their Nationally Determined Contributio...

Climate change has triggered a global public health emergency that, unless adequately addressed, is likely to become a multigenerational public health catastrophe. The policy actions needed to limit global warming deliver a wide range of public health benefits above and beyond those that will result from limiting climate change. Moreover, these hea...

Limiting climate change requires effective policy solutions. In democratic societies, voting for candidates who support climate policy solutions is arguably the most important action citizens can take. Therefore, understanding the dynamics of global warming as a voting issue is crucial for building public and political will for climate solutions. U...

This paper is available, open-access: https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/abcfe2/pdf Abstract Advantageous new ideas and practices have a vexing track record of taking root slowly, if at all.Identifying or creating, and then supporting, communities of practice is a promising approach to enhancing the likelihood that science-base...

Despite Greta Thunberg's popularity, research has yet to investigate her impact on the public's willingness to take collective action on climate change. Using cross‐sectional data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults (N = 1,303), we investigate the “Greta Thunberg Effect,” or whether exposure to Greta Thunberg predicts collective...

This report is an analysis of public opinion about climate change among the regular U.S. audience (American adults who frequently watch, read, or listen to the content) of each of six major U.S. news sources: CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the Weather Channel, and the national nightly network news (on CBS, ABC, or NBC). The findings in this report are...

Climate change is a global threat that poses significant risks to pregnant women and to their developing fetus and newborn. Educating pregnant women about the risks to their pregnancy may improve maternal and child health outcomes. Prior research suggests that presenting health information in narrative format can be more effective than a didactic f...

Climate Matters is a localized climate change reporting resources program developed to support TV weathercasters across the United States. Developed as a pilot test in one media market in 2010, it launched nationwide in 2013; in the Fall of 2019 more than 797 weathercasters were participating in the program. In this paper we present evidence of the...

Drawing on a nationally representative survey (N = 1,029; including 911 registered voters), this report describes how Democratic, Independent, and Republican registered voters view global warming, climate and energy policies, and personal and collective action. This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Chang...

This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (climatecommunication.yale.edu) and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (climatechangecommunication.org). Interview dates: April 7 – 17, 2020....

People often misperceive other people's beliefs about global warming—for instance, underestimating the percentage of people who think global warming is happening. In the U.S., perceptions of others vary across political lines and interact with the extent to which partisans align or deviate from the views of their political ingroup. With an online s...

Americans strongly support policies aimed at increasing the use of renewable energy. Prior research has found that, overall, support for renewable energy tends to be motivated primarily by people's perceptions that it creates economic benefits and reduces environmental harms. However, the extant research has not established how these motivations va...

On April 3 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all Americans wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The announcement came during the fielding of a large, nationally-representative survey (N = 3,933) of Americans' COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, providing an opportunity t...

To achieve the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement—limiting global warming to no more than 2 °C (and if possible 1.5 °C)—and thereby avoid the most harmful impacts of climate change to human health and well-being, the global community must dramatically reduce its use of fossil fuels in the very near future (Allen et al., 2018; Figueres et al., 2017...

In this working paper, we used a large national survey of American adults (N = 3,933) to estimate the effect of perceived social norms among friends and family (i.e., how often friends and family perform preventive behaviors, and whether they think it is important for the respondent to do so) on people’s own COVID-19 preventive behaviors. We found...

Drawing on a scientific national survey (N = 3,933; including 3,188 registered voters), this report describes Americans’ risk perceptions and emotional responses to COVID-19 to inform the public health community, policymakers, and the public.

On April 3 2020, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that all Americans wear face masks to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The announcement came during the fielding of a large, nationally-representative survey (N = 3,933) of Americans’ COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors, providing an opportunity t...

Drawing on a scientific national survey (N = 3,933; including 3,188 registered voters), this report describes Americans’ coronavirus knowledge, attitudes, vulnerabilities, protective behaviors, and communication needs in an effort to inform the public health community, policymakers, and the public.

This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (climatecommunication.yale.edu) and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (climatechangecommunication.org). Interview dates: November 8 – 20, 201...

This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (climatecommunication.yale.edu) and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (climatechangecommunication.org). Interview dates: November 8 – 20, 201...

A rapidly growing number of TV weathercasters are reporting on the local implications of climate change, although little is known about the effectiveness of such communication. To test the impact of localized climate reporting, we conducted an internet-based randomized controlled experiment in which local TV news viewers (n = 1,200) from two Americ...

Broadcast meteorologists—highly skilled professionals who work at the intersection between climate scientists and the public—have considerable opportunity to educate their viewers about the local impacts of global climate change. Prior research has shown that, within the broadcast meteorology community, views of climate change have evolved rapidly...

Since 2012, the National Park Service’s (NPS’s) Urban Ecology Research Learning Alliance (UERLA) and George Mason University’s Center for Climate Change Communication have partnered on a collaborative “research- to-practice” internship program that employs undergraduate and graduate-level students to produce interdisciplinary, science-based climate...

In early 2019, a US climate change and economic renewal policy proposal called the Green New Deal (GND)¹ rose from obscurity to national prominence in just four months. This situation created a natural field experiment in which to study the emergence of partisan polarization. Here, we report findings from two nationally representative surveys of re...

The journalistic norm of balance has been described as the practice of giving equal weight to different sides of a story; false balance is balanced reporting when the weight of evidence strongly favors one side over others—for example, the reality of human-caused climate change. False balance is problematic because it skews public perception of exp...

Television weathercasters are uniquely situated to inform their audiences about the local impacts of global climate change and a growing number of them are adopting the role of climate change educator. We surveyed all American broadcast meteorology professionals in 2015 ( N = 2,059; response rate = 22.6%), 2016 ( N = 2017; response rate = 31.2%), a...