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Global Warming’s Six Americas: a review and recommendations for climate change communication
Abstract
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, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive. The framework was first developed in 2008 and has been tracked twice a year using nationally representative surveys for over a decade. This research has helped advance communication theory and practice and the Six Americas framework has informed the decision making of stakeholders ranging from scientists to government officials, journalists, educators, and advocates. The framework has also been extended to assess specialized audiences (e.g. broadcast meteorologists) and other countries (e.g. India, Australia, and Germany). Future research should further develop and investigate the Six Americas within the United States, while also developing tailored segmentations and related tools for other countries.
... Publics, or segmented audiences, identified within the larger group can then be categorized as latent, aware, or active based on their level of engagement with a specific topic [19], in this case, food consumption. Strategic messages can be developed which target the expansion of knowledge, influence attitudes, and promote behavior change for specific audiences [20], essentially clustering people into socially motivated groups rather than targeting a larger, more diversified population [21]. Using demographics and psychographics to "segment by lifestyle or personality traits or characteristics" (p. ...
... The methodological approach used outcome variables of interest (in this case, the three conceptualizations of trust) which were then used to empirically classify individuals. Grounding the work in the situational theory of publics [18] and considering previous audience segmentation research [21][22][23], the present study used demographic characteristics of respondents as variables of interest to which one can align with the emergent clusters. However, this methodological approach may be appropriate and applicable using other independent variables of interest. ...
... Using the observed results may provide guidance on the engagement of different segments of consumers. Based on finite resources available for engaging and educating consumers, the results indicated that focusing on differing levels of trust may be more effective than simply on specific demographic characteristics [21]. Specifically, the results indicated there may be a large segment of the population which already has a high degree of existing trust with the food system. ...
Communicating the science behind food production to consumers is increasingly complex due to the proliferation of food innovations, information overload, and the presence of misinformation. Trust plays a pivotal role in consumer perceptions of food safety and acceptance of new food technologies. This study explores consumers’ trust in food by segmenting audiences based on cognitive trust in science, affective trust in new foods, and dispositional trust in sources of food information. Using a survey of 1011 United States consumer respondents, cluster analysis identified five distinct trust segments: Lack Trust, Trusting, On the Fence, Trust New Food Not Science or Sources, and Trust Science not New Food. Results revealed significant demographic differences among the five segments, with age, education, political ideology, and dietary preferences influencing trust levels. Findings contribute to audience segmentation theory by demonstrating the coexistence of multiple trust dimensions and their impact on food-related decision-making. Practically, this study provides a framework for science communicators and policymakers to tailor messaging strategies that align with consumer trust profiles, ultimately fostering informed decision-making in the food system.
... Thematic analyses across SASSY segments found extreme segments were significantly more likely to respond that Nothing would change their current beliefs and give less Unsure responses. These findings support previous research showing the Alarmed and Dismissive have the firmest climate beliefs 21 and their resistance to anything that would change their mind is consistent with their high attitudinal certainty 8 . Past research has linked confidence in and rigid adherence to beliefs with a reduced propensity to seek new information 44 and a tendency to selectively pursue confirmatory information 45 . ...
... It needs to be scientifically explained but in plain [E]nglish what is happening". Such responses are consistent with the lower issue involvement of the Cautious, who may be less willing to engage in effortful information processing 8 . This finding suggests opportunities to facilitate interpretation of climate science by improving education and research translation. ...
... It is unlikely, however, that scientific evidence alone would successfully shift the opinions of climate change deniers. Dismissive and Doubtful segments are instead more likely to argue against such evidence in motivated defense of their current positions 8 . This tendency could be seen in responses from skeptical segments that expressed a lack of trust in current empirical evidence. ...
What do Australians believe would change their current opinions about climate change? In this study, we used audience segmentation analysis through the Six Americas Short Survey to identify groups of climate opinion holders within a representative sample of Australians. We had 4857 participants tell us what it would take to change their current opinions about climate change and leveraged OpenAI’s Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) to identify the presence or absence of themes (Nothing, Evidence and Information, Trusted Sources, Action, and Unsure) and subthemes in their responses. GPT performed at near-human levels, proving to be a highly useful tool for thematic analysis. Our analyses revealed that strong climate denialists and believers tended to display greater dogmatism, with increased likelihood of stating that nothing would change their mind and lower likelihood of being unsure. Results also highlighted the need for diverse forms of evidence and information and the importance of trusted sources of information across audience segments. These findings provide support for GPT’s utility in managing large datasets in the social sciences and offer participant-informed insights into climate opinion change.
... Thematic analyses across SASSY segments found extreme segments were significantly more likely to respond that Nothing would change their current beliefs and give less Unsure responses. These findings support previous research showing the Alarmed and Dismissive have the firmest climate beliefs 21 and their resistance to anything that would change their mind is consistent with their high attitudinal certainty 8 . Past research has linked confidence in and rigid adherence to beliefs with a reduced propensity to seek new information 44 and a tendency to selectively pursue confirmatory information 45 . ...
... It needs to be scientifically explained but in plain [E]nglish what is happening". Such responses are consistent with the lower issue involvement of the Cautious, who may be less willing to engage in effortful information processing 8 . This finding suggests opportunities to facilitate interpretation of climate science by improving education and research translation. ...
... It is unlikely, however, that scientific evidence alone would successfully shift the opinions of climate change deniers. Dismissive and Doubtful segments are instead more likely to argue against such evidence in motivated defense of their current positions 8 . This tendency could be seen in responses from skeptical segments that expressed a lack of trust in current empirical evidence. ...
What do Australians believe would change their current opinions about climate change? In this study, we used audience segmentation analysis through the Six Americas Short Survey to identify groups of climate opinion holders within a representative sample of Australians. We had 4857 participants tell us what it would take to change their current opinions about climate change and leveraged OpenAI’s Generative Pre-Trained Transformer (GPT) to identify the presence or absence of themes (Nothing, Evidence and Information, Trusted Sources, Action, and Unsure) and subthemes in their responses. GPT performed at near-human levels, proving to be a highly useful tool for thematic analysis. Our analyses revealed that strong climate denialists and believers tended to display greater dogmatism, with increased likelihood of stating that nothing would change their mind and lower likelihood of being unsure. Results also highlighted the need for diverse forms of evidence and information and the importance of trusted sources of information across audience segments. These findings provide support for GPT’s utility in managing large datasets in the social sciences and offer participant-informed insights into climate opinion change.
... Skeptics may challenge the validity of climate change because they do not perceive the message as urgent, do not believe it will affect them on a personal level in the near future (Marlon et al. 2022;Moyer-Gusé et al. 2011;Futerfas & Nan 2017), do not perceive senders of pro-climate change messages to be credible (Dong et al. 2018;Fage-Butler et al. 2022;Malka et al. 2009), or because climate solutions may conflict with their core ideals and values (Bliuc et al. 2015;Steg 2023). For example, some skeptics believe climate change is a political ploy designed to benefit pro-environmentalist groups and "green energy" companies at the expense of taxpayers, leading them to criticize or dismiss climate change messages (Leiserowitz et al. 2021;Voci and Karmasin 2024). Additionally, many proposed climate change solutions also involve agency from the audience, urging them to change daily habits (IPCC 2022;Wolf & Moser 2011), which is often met with resistance because the inconvenience of changing behavior outweighs the perceived threat of climate change (Wolf & Moser 2011). ...
... Climate skepticism itself is also not uniform, and there are several approaches to classifying the nature and degree of skepticism. Leiserowitz et al. (2021) created a framework known as "Global Warming's Six Americas," in which climate skeptics in the USA may be classified as (1) the doubtful, who do not believe climate change is occurring, and (2) the dismissive, who not only reject the idea of climate change, but also endorse conspiracy theories claiming that climate change is a hoax. Similarly, Haltinner and Sarathchandra (2021) outline four subtypes of climate skeptic: ...
... Likewise, research suggests knowledge and awareness of a looming threat may not necessarily equate to a sense of urgency or desire to act (Kim et al. 2009;Skurka & Lee Cunningham 2023). For example, even if an individual has sufficient understanding of the mechanisms of climate change, they still may not view it as eminently dangerous or take mitigating action if doing creates an opposing, more immediate threat to their identity, livelihood, or personal convenience (Leiserowitz et al. 2010(Leiserowitz et al. , 2021Nisbet & Myers 2007). Many solutions are also expensive or otherwise inaccessible to a large number of individuals, including non-skeptics (Scheufele 2013;Steg 2023;Wolf & Moser 2011). ...
Climate change is a global threat that some groups continue to dispute or deny, particularly in the USA. Humor is a potential communication tool that could be used to persuade and inform skeptical audiences about controversial topics, although existing studies yield mixed findings regarding the types of humor that most strongly resonate with skeptics. Undergraduate college students ( n = 96) were surveyed and viewed one of three videos on climate change with similar content that differed in their presentation (no humor, affiliative humor, aggressive humor) to determine which appeal would best promote climate change comprehension, belief, risk perception, and mitigation intention. We also investigated whether participants’ political viewpoint correlated with humor preferences and how these metrics impacted their responses. Politically conservative participants were slightly more likely to prefer aggressive humor than liberals but gave similar funniness ratings for both humorous videos. Perceived funniness of the affiliative humor and control video increased as sense of humor increased, while the aggressive humor video was perceived as funny regardless of participant sense of humor. Comprehension of climate change was slightly higher in participants who viewed the aggressive humor video but was not correlated with political viewpoint. Conservative participants were less likely to be engaged by their respective video, regardless of whether humor was present. Increase in climate change belief was greater in conservative participants, while liberal participants had higher risk perceptions and intentions of activism. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of climate change communication.
... We chose to collect data on this number of advertisements because power calculations indicated that 75 posts would ensure that the smallest effect size observed in previous research (Mosleh et al., 2020) could be detected with high power (see preregistration for details). Because we were most interested in people sharing the posts with others, the posts targeted people who were predicted to be Alarmed about climate change and, thus, more likely to engage with content on this issue (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... Our focus on members of the public with an inclination towards engaging with online content on the topic of climate change is also the reason we specifically targeted individuals who had been identified as "Alarmed" about (i.e. most worried about and engaged with) the issue of climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... For example, a headline for a post made for the Alarmed might read: "The upfront costs of solar panels are sometimes too high for small organizations--but this program changes that." Due to the high levels of engagement with climate change and the desire for more action to address this issue amongst the Alarmed (Leiserowitz et al., 2021), we consider these news stories as tailored to the beliefs and interests of the recipients of the advertisements. The remaining 25 posts contained content that was created for four less-concerned groups of the Six Americas (i.e. the Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive). ...
Social media has become an important medium for climate change communication, where sponsored content can be delivered to specific audiences. However, studying message effects on social media platforms has limitations and therefore scholars often rely on surveys and controlled experiments, which can lack external validity. Here, we use survey methods to predict the real-world performance of advertisements on Facebook. We found that a 10 percentage point increase in self-reported likelihood of sharing a post predicted 55% more actual shares, and a 10 percentage point increase in perceptions that the post would be interesting to others predicted 86% more shares. We also found a U-shaped relationship between people’s emotional reactions to the posts and the number of shares, such that emotionally-neutral posts were shared less often than posts that elicited either a strongly positive or negative emotional response. We then discuss the strategic and practical applications of these findings.
... Climate change communicators commonly implement audience segmentation to help match their communication approaches to their audience's perspective [44][45][46][47]. Audience segmentation is the process of subgrouping population members who "share similar values, beliefs, behaviors, and/or policy preferences" about a topic [48]. ...
... Audience segmentation is the process of subgrouping population members who "share similar values, beliefs, behaviors, and/or policy preferences" about a topic [48]. The most well-known and longest-running climate change audience segmentation program is the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, which groups adult United States residents into six subgroups (i.e., "Six Americas") [46]. These subgroups are based on climate change beliefs and attitudes, ranging from high to low levels of concern, issue engagement, and degree of certainty that climate change is occurring [46]. ...
... The most well-known and longest-running climate change audience segmentation program is the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, which groups adult United States residents into six subgroups (i.e., "Six Americas") [46]. These subgroups are based on climate change beliefs and attitudes, ranging from high to low levels of concern, issue engagement, and degree of certainty that climate change is occurring [46]. The Six Americas studies and others using this audience framework have found that these unique subgroups process and respond to climate change information differently [44,49]. ...
Climate change's impacts on the oceans ("ocean change") threaten people globally. Climate action is needed at multiple scales, from individual to collective action, and yet there is limited research on what motivates this action in response to ocean change. In this study, we conducted an online survey of residents of the state of Oregon, United States (n = 1414), to assess concerns, personal importance, and risk perceptions regarding ocean change and explore potential psychological cognitions to target in action-oriented communication efforts. Our latent class analysis identified four distinct audience subgroups ranging from individuals who are Doubtful (9 %) about ocean change to those who are Cautious (20 %), Concerned (33 %), and Alarmed (38 %). Audience subgroups varied in their climate action intentions and associated psychological cognitions (i.e., psychological distance, efficacy beliefs, social norm perceptions). The climate action intentions of the Alarmed and Concerned were positively predicted by all cognitions, those of the Cautious were significantly predicted by social norms (β = .15, p = .002) and efficacy beliefs (β = .34, p < .001), and those of the Doubtful were only predicted by efficacy beliefs (β = .23, p < .001). Across all four audiences, efficacy beliefs were strongly associated with intended climate action (β = .30, p < .001), suggesting efficacy beliefs may be a practical cognition to target in broad audience communication efforts on ocean change. These findings reinforce the importance of targeting specific psychological cognitions and, ideally, distinct audiences in ocean change communication efforts intending to motivate widespread climate action.
... While we did not have a pre-existing EID measure for our participants, groups can be assumed to have a normative mix of pro-environmental individuals. Although American and Canadian studies indicate growing awareness and concern regarding climate change, this awareness is not the population majority, nor is awareness equivalent to EID or, critically, nor does it translate to pro-environmental action (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Mildenberger et al., 2016). Americans are increasingly identifying as 'Alarmed' about climate change -up to 24% of the population according to Yale's Global Warming's Six Americas (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... Although American and Canadian studies indicate growing awareness and concern regarding climate change, this awareness is not the population majority, nor is awareness equivalent to EID or, critically, nor does it translate to pro-environmental action (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Mildenberger et al., 2016). Americans are increasingly identifying as 'Alarmed' about climate change -up to 24% of the population according to Yale's Global Warming's Six Americas (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). While encouraging for potential climate solutions, even within this segmentation, 20% are 'Inactive' -potentially less likely to engage in PEBs. ...
... Aunque no disponíamos de una medida de IA preexistente para nuestros participantes, se puede suponer que los grupos presentan una mezcla normativa de individuos proambientales. Aunque los estudios estadounidenses y canadienses indican una creciente concienciación y preocupación por el cambio climático, esta concienciación no es mayoritaria en la población ni equivale a IA ni, lo que es más importante, se traduce en acciones proambientales (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Mildenberger et al., 2016). Los estadounidenses se identifican cada vez más como 'Alarmados' por el cambio climático: hasta un 24% de la población según Las Seis Américas del Calentamiento Global de Yale (Global Warming's Six Americas; Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
Climate change increasingly stresses global water availability and reliability via either too much (e.g., floods) or too little (e.g., droughts). To ensure safe and equitable water access and management, significant behaviour changes are needed among both water consumers and decision-makers. Yet discussing water vulnerabilities can be existentially threatening because these water crises involve considering potential physical harm or death from a life-sustaining resource. According to Terror Management Theory (TMT), implicit or explicit awareness of existential threats may result in contradictory identity reinforcements that may actually limit positive water solutions. We examined how three life-threatening water messages — specifically drowning, contaminated water consumption, dehydration — influenced environmental identity compared to a standard mortality threat and a control among 455 Canadian and American adults. Our results indicated that existentially threatening messages significantly increased environmental identity polarization (p < .05). Given these findings, we discuss implications for sustainable water management within an increasingly threatening global environment.
... We chose to collect data on this number of advertisements because power calculations indicated that 75 posts would ensure that the smallest effect size observed in previous research (Mosleh et al., 2020) could be detected with high power (see preregistration for details). Because we were most interested in people sharing the posts with others, the posts targeted people who were predicted to be Alarmed about climate change and, thus, more likely to engage with content on this issue (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... Our focus on members of the public with an inclination towards engaging with online content on the topic of climate change is also the reason we specifically targeted individuals who had been identified as "Alarmed" about (i.e. most worried about and engaged with) the issue of climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... For example, a headline for a post made for the Alarmed might read: "The upfront costs of solar panels are sometimes too high for small organizations--but this program changes that." Due to the high levels of engagement with climate change and the desire for more action to address this issue amongst the Alarmed (Leiserowitz et al., 2021), we consider these news stories as tailored to the beliefs and interests of the recipients of the advertisements. The remaining 25 posts contained content that was created for four less-concerned groups of the Six Americas (i.e. the Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive). ...
... Motives represent concerns that drive behavior (Gollwitzer and Oettingen, 2015), making them integral to better understanding behaviors like IA (Foust and Taber, 2023;Link, 2024). Motives play a role in a variety of environmental IS research, ranging from motives that segment climate change audiences (Leiserowitz et al., 2021), to investigating how climate change affects seeking motives (Kahlor, 2007). However, we do not have a comprehensive understanding of what motivates IA, or environmental IA in particular (Deline and Kahlor, 2019;Foust and Taber, 2023). ...
... Motives are integral to studying information behavior in communication research -for example, IS is associated with constructs like involvement, which explains what people are motivated to consider salient, resulting in cognitive and emotional engagement (Gregory and Di Leo, 2003;Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Motives are also applied within environmental communication research -for instance, through their use to segment climate change audiences and describe associated information behaviors (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). ...
... Motives are integral to studying information behavior in communication research -for example, IS is associated with constructs like involvement, which explains what people are motivated to consider salient, resulting in cognitive and emotional engagement (Gregory and Di Leo, 2003;Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Motives are also applied within environmental communication research -for instance, through their use to segment climate change audiences and describe associated information behaviors (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). We use the three major PRIA categories to structure an IA motive review below. ...
Information avoidance (IA) is a prevalent information behavior that is used by people to understand and act on environmental issues, yet is understudied in the environmental field, leaving us with an incomplete picture of environmental communication processes and outcomes. Compounding this partial knowledge is a lack of research into people’s own conceptions of IA. Considering these issues together calls for exploratory research into people’s lived experiences of environmental IA. To do so, we focused on a factor that drives behaviors like IA: motives. We investigated environmental IA motives among those living in the US and used the pre-theoretical planned risk information avoidance (PRIA) model to compare and contrast our findings. To undertake this work, we developed a short questionnaire; research company YouGov administered the project. They recruited our participants, who were panel members from their US panel, n = 200. We analyzed open-ended data on participants’ IA motives with a framework thematic analysis, identifying seven motives: information credibility and exposure; interpersonal relationship frames; emotional arousal; agency; hazard perceptions; and environmental topics. These findings provide three contributions to environmental IA research. First, three of these motives have been under and/or unexplored in IA studies to date, and we suggest their inclusion in an expanded PRIA model to forward model development. Three other motives indicate boundary conditions associated with environmental issues and IA: scale, timeframe, and referents. Boundary conditions represent how well a theory or model fits into a research context and can sharpen future IA investigations within environmental contexts to increase predictive and explanatory power. Lastly, we also identified the top environmental issues our participants wanted to avoid. Our results provide an initial base to continue developing environmental IA research.
... In their work, they identify six groups of Americans based on their perceptions of climate change (A. Leiserowitz et al. 2021). The YPCCC team tracks these groups and perceptions over time. ...
... In the four years between 2017 and 2021, they found that 15% of people increased their concern regarding climate change (A. Leiserowitz et al. 2021). Thus, despite Motta's (2021) contention that changing perceptions on climate change reflect "changing samples," the YPCCC findings that 15% of the voting public did change their perspectives over 4 years indicates the imperative need for additional scholarship on climate change perceptions and their variations over time. ...
... Despite over 99% of scientific literature affirming the reality of climate change, as reported by Lynas et al. (2021), political affiliation often influences climate beliefs more than scientific understanding (Bamberg & Möser, 2007;Dunlap & McCright, 2012). This discrepancy leads to varied consensus levels across different contexts, such as the USA's 50% acknowledgment of anthropogenic climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021); compared to Sweden's 95% (Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). According to Degerman (2016), consensus drops to 85% among Swedish secondary students. ...
... There seem to be differences between the Swedish and U.S. context, where the controversy stems from the surrounding community outside the science classroom (see Borgerding & Dagistan, 2018;Nation & Feldman, 2021). The preservice science teachers in our study, based in Sweden, didn't fear community backlash, possibly due to Sweden's higher consensus on climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2021). The concern about the climate change denying students could very well be valid considering the lower agreement on climate change among Swedish secondary students compared to the general public (Degerman, 2016;Swedish Environmental Protection Agency, 2021;Uba, 2021). ...
... The segmentation tool we deployed categorises respondents based on their perception of climate change by answering four questions: (1) 'How important is the issue of global warming to you personally'; (2) 'How worried are you about global warming?'; (3) 'How much do you think global warming will harm you personally?'; and (4) 'How much do you think global warming will harm future generations of people?' (Maibach et al 2009, Leiserowitz et al 2021. Based on the answers, the tool assigns a weight value to each response and calculates a total score to determine the segments that each of the respondents fall into. ...
... Australia shows a similar trend with the 'Alarmed' segment (31%) strongly outnumbering those who dismiss climate change (9%) (Richardson et al 2022). America's population is more divided with a large 'Alarmed' group (26%) but also a significant number of doubters and deniers (20% combined) (Leiserowitz et al 2021). ...
The Malaysia National Survey of Climate Change Concern and Behaviour is the first of its kind to provide insights into the Malaysian public’s understanding of climate change. This is crucial for Malaysia, a country experiencing weather disruptions and climate-induced disasters. This nationally representative survey (n = 1063) assessed climate change awareness, literacy levels, policy support, motivations for change, individual actions and media preferences. It also deployed an audience segmentation tool to support the design of targeted communications about both the impacts and risks of climate change and the roll out of climate solutions. The research finds that the Malaysian public has a high level of alarm or concern over climate change (81%). 40–56% of respondents understand the commonly used terminologies (e.g., greenhouse gas, low carbon technology, mitigation and renewable energy). It also finds that Malaysians have adopted greener choices (65–79%) in a range of energy, consumer and waste-related behaviours to address climate change. Results also show that ‘easier’ behaviours are more commonly adopted, such as reducing electricity use, while measures that cost money or time such as installing solar panels and using public transport are less likely to be adopted. Our findings show that Malaysians are worried about climate change, but effective communication strategies are required to help the shift to ‘harder’ change. Such strategies will be crucial for better disaster and health responses and policy support for the transition to a net zero future.
... For example, the America's Wildlife Values project found that US residents differ in how they view wildlife based on their value orientations of domination (i.e., the prioritization of human wellbeing and a utilitarian view of wildlife) and mutualism (i.e., the prioritization of social inclusion and belief in rights for wildlife; Teel & Manfredo, 2010). In the Six Americas study, different groups of US residents varied in their confidence levels for participating in pro-environmental actions (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Normative perceptions about appropriate or common environmental actions can also vary depending on various sociocultural factors such as race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status (i. ...
... Audience segmentation is a technique used to group people based on their values, beliefs, perceptions, behaviors, and demographics . The Six Americas project grouped people in the United States into six segments based on their perceptions of the issue of climate change: the alarmed, concerned, cautious, disengaged, doubtful, and dismissive groups (Leiserowitz et al., 2009(Leiserowitz et al., , 2021. Researchers have also classified US and international populations into four different groups based on their beliefs about wildlife management (i.e., traditionalist, mutualist, pluralist, and distanced groups; Manfredo et al., 2022;Teel & Manfredo, 2010). ...
Audience segmentation can be used to identify target audiences in environmental public engagement and communication, but few studies have used segmentation to study biodiversity conservation behavior. This study used segmentation to better understand perceptions and behaviors around different types of actions related to native plant gardening. With a United States representative survey (n = 1,200), we measured beliefs and intentions to engage in personal-sphere (i.e., individual), social diffusion (i.e., encouraging others to act), and civic action behavior (e.g., voting). A latent class analysis (LCA) revealed four distinct groups within the population: Disengaged, Potential Adopters, Potential Amplifiers, and Potential Advocates. Each class comprised approximately one-quarter of the United States population. We found that certain groups are more receptive to personal-sphere behavior, while others may be more receptive to social diffusion behavior or civic action behavior. The groups varied by key distinguishing characteristics: perceptions around civic action, previous personal-sphere and social diffusion behavior, and intentions to engage in personal-sphere action. Findings revealed opportunities to create tailored public engagement strategies to engage different groups in urban biodiversity conservation behavior.
... The similarities in both environmental perception and behavior between Christians and non-Christians in Hong Kong may be associated with regional demographic and ideological variations. Considering climate change as an illustrative environmental issue, a 2020 survey conducted in the United States revealed that only 55 percent of the 27,075 Americans interviewed were convinced that global warming is occurring and viewed it as an urgent or serious threat (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Among those who were skeptical or dismissive about climate change, 70 percent were identified as politically conservative and demographically they tended to be non-Hispanic whites, older, and male (Leiserowitz et al. 2021). ...
... Considering climate change as an illustrative environmental issue, a 2020 survey conducted in the United States revealed that only 55 percent of the 27,075 Americans interviewed were convinced that global warming is occurring and viewed it as an urgent or serious threat (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Among those who were skeptical or dismissive about climate change, 70 percent were identified as politically conservative and demographically they tended to be non-Hispanic whites, older, and male (Leiserowitz et al. 2021). In contrast, a survey involving 1705 Hong Kong adults found that 92 percent are mostly or very convinced that climate change is impacting the planet (Liao et al. 2023). ...
Religious attributes affecting Christians’ environmentalism have received considerable attention since the publication of Lynn White's thesis in 1967, which accused Christianity as the root cause of the ecological crisis. This study aims to assess the relationship between Christianity and environmentalism in Hong Kong, an Asian city where Christianity has been introduced for just more than two centuries. In general, Hong Kong Christians had a stronger willingness to sacrifice for the environment as compared to non‐Christians. Both stewardship worldview and Christian justice and love were identified as the main drivers for environmentalism in Christians, which can be further improved via church environmental education. Our findings provide a particular example to broaden the diversity of the Christianity‐environmentalism nexus and highlight the functional role of stewardship worldview in the Hong Kong context. However, we also call for stronger environmental education in Hong Kong's church to bridge the willingness‐behavior gap among local Christians.
... Among segmentation studies, however, almost no time series exist (Hine et al., 2014; see Supplemental Table 1). The notable exceptions are Leiserowitz et al. (2021Leiserowitz et al. ( , 2023, who traced the distribution of segments for the last decade in the U.S. Especially since the Paris Agreement, their studies reveal interesting shifts: The Alarmed and Concerned have been growing, while the Cautious have been shrinking. In Australia, Morrison et al. (2018) found that, from 2011 to 2016, the Cautious and Disengaged increased in proportion and the segments of the Doubtful and Dismissive decreased; major events such as the Paris Agreement may serve as an explanation for this trend. ...
This study explores potential shifts in climate change-related perceptions
and behavior over time and how this corresponds to changing
communicative engagement with climate change. This is done through
surveys conducted in Germany during UN climate summits in 2015 (n =
1477), 2018 (n = 1044), 2019 (n = 1000), 2021 (n= 1000) and 2023 (n =
1015). A latent profile analysis identifies five population segments
regarding perceptions and behavioral engagement, and shows how
they also differ in their communicative engagement: Convinced
Engaged, Convinced Disengaged, Uninformed Engaged, Uninformed
Disengaged and Disengaged Deniers. We find a small group of climate
change deniers (Disengaged Deniers) and a segment that is
unknowledgeable but politically engaged (Uninformed Engaged) and
frequently uses entertainment media and social media. The time series
reveals a strong peak in climate-friendly perceptions and related
communicative engagement in 2019. The most recent survey, however,
shows a significant backlash against climate protection. The segments
less convinced of anthropogenic climate change have increased in size,
notably the Disengaged Deniers. The latest results potentially indicate an
impending climate change fatigue or frustration with climate policy
which is accompanied by a lower level of issue-specific media use and
conversations with others highlighting the importance of analyzing the
connection between attitudes, behavior and different communication
practices.
... Social psychological characteristics, such as higher levels of environmental identity and climate change perceptions, have also been positively associated and predicted more frequent pro-environmental behaviour (e.g., Ajibade and Boateng, 2021;Brügger et al., 2021;van Valkengoed et al., 2024). Climate change perceptions can be defined as the degree to which climate change is believed to be real, caused by humans and having negative consequences (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Steg, 2023). Climate change perceptions are linked to pro-environmental behaviour and support for mitigation policies (Brink and Wamsler, 2019;Steg, 2023;van Valkengoed et al., 2021). ...
Introduction: Climate change represents the most significant environmental and
social issue of our time. Climate change anxiety has been identified as a relevant
consequence of climate change globally.
Methods: The current study explored how climate change anxiety and
pro-environmental behaviour vary with gender and social psychological
characteristics, using a nationally representative Portuguese sample.
Results: The findings revealed that women reported higher levels of climate
change anxiety compared to men, and this was driven by women’s higher levels
of climate change anxiety cognitive impairment. Women also indicated more
frequent pro-environmental behaviours, higher levels of environmental identity
and climate change perceptions than men. The findings further showed similar
relations for men and women, between social psychological mechanisms
(environmental identity and climate change perceptions) and their impact on
climate change anxiety and some types of pro-environmental behaviours.
The results also demonstrated that climate change perceptions mediated the
effect of environmental identity on pro-environmental behaviours and those
mediations were further moderated by gender.
Discussion: The results highlight the importance of exploring the gender gap in
environmental related attitudes and behaviours and the incorporation of gender
mainstreaming in environmental sustainability policies and programmes.
... Prior research suggests that people are more likely to support and engage in NVCD when: (1) they feel a great injustice is happening, and (2) they feel there has been a failure in policy or government that must be redressed 8 . Prior research has found that support for organizations that engage in NVCD in defense of the climate is largely restricted to segments of the public characterized as Alarmed or Concerned about climate change 9,10 and that about half of the people who support NVCD are willing to personally participate in it. ...
Some climate activists use nonviolent civil disobedience (NVCD) to protest the slow pace of climate policy action. Civil disobedience theorists posit that building a critical mass of support for and participation in NVCD increases the likelihood of policy success. Here we investigate predictors of public support for and personal willingness to engage in NVCD using data from a nationally representative survey of U.S. adults ( n = 1303). Linear regression analysis revealed the following significant predictors of public willingness to support and engage in NVCD: collective efficacy; anger; perceived risk; identification with the Democratic Party; identification with climate activists; and exposure to liberal news media. Similarly, all these variables were significant in the relative weight analysis. These findings provide theoretical and practical insights into the role of NVCD in the climate movement.
... Despite our collective differences, heavily centering mes saging on the scientific aspects and climate facts is a common approach, not only in the national park system but across climate education in general (Sauer et al. 2021). While entrusting science as the primary strategy to promote climate advocacy may seem like a reasonable avenue, research suggests that the approach of focusing on facts is not enough (Leiserowitz et al. 2021;Hayhoe 2022). In fact, Duhaime indicates that "scientific research on effective environmental communication and behavior change confirms that just telling people the facts is an oversimplified and ineffective approach" (2022: 189). ...
Across the globe, our park systems, which serve as strongholds for intact ecosystems and as some of the last bastions of wilderness, are exhibiting the impacts of a changing climate. This is particularly significant because these emblematic sites serve as vital educational opportunities. While parks are uniquely positioned as prospects for promoting climate advocacy, it is important to recognize that our relationship with climate change and our connection to nature varies dramatically across different groups of people. Consequently, the effectiveness of climate-related educational efforts depends directly on strategic messaging that aligns with these distinctions. By using the Biophilia Hypothesis as a theoretical framework and employing the Biophilic Profile, an educational tool that explores our nuanced connection to nature, valuable patterns can emerge that offer insights into strategies to diversify climate messaging to better align with different people’s unique ways of knowing. This alignment can promote more effective, responsive, and meaningful climate campaigns and environmental education initiatives.
... The seminal Six Americas study (30,31) identified six distinct climate audience segments, ranging from the Alarmed segment who are most worried, involved and supportive of policy measures to the Dismissive group who are not concerned and strongly opposed to climate policies. This segmentation has been reproduced many times in the United States and similar results have been found with fewer variables included in the analysis (32,33). Additionally, this approach was extended to other countries including Australia (7,(34)(35)(36), India (37), Singapore (38) and Canada (39). ...
... Research has identified three types of climate change perceptions: the degree to which one perceives climate change as real, caused by humans and as having negative consequences. Generally, climate change is believed to be real, to have anthropogenic origins and negative consequences worldwide (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Steg, 2018Steg, , 2023. ...
Introduction:Climate change is one of society’s most severe crisis, presenting a
health threat to humans with serious impacts on mental health. Climate anxiety
has been identified as an important mental health consequence of climate
change.
Methods: The current study examined the role of social psychological
characteristics on climate change anxiety and pro-environmental behavior,
using a nationally representative sample of Portuguese parents who completed
extensive questionnaires.
Results: More central parental identities negatively correlated with and predicted
climate change anxiety, revealing that a central parental identity can be a
protective factor against mental health issues. Parental identity centrality also
predicted greater engagement in pro-environmental behavior. The findings
further showed that environmental identity and climate change perceptions
were positively related and predicted higher levels climate change anxiety and
pro-environmental behavior. Finally, parental identity centrality was linked to
greater pro-environmental behavior through climate change anxiety, bringing
important contributions to research on the underlying mechanisms that shape
pro-environmental behavior.
Discussion: The findings shed light on the complex mechanisms underlying
and influencing climate anxiety and pro-environmental behavior, necessary to
mitigate the acute consequences of the climate crisis.
... Most respondents expressed concern (68%) or alarm (23.6%) about climate change, with levels of concern significantly exceeding national averages, particularly in the U.S. This heightened awareness may stem from their professional roles and affiliations with climate-focused organizations (A. Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Despite varying beliefs, all respondents acknowledged observing climate change impacts in their work, underscoring a consensus on its professional relevance. Recent 160 literature reviews emphasize the critical role of affect and emotions as key drivers of climate change perception and action (Brosch, 2021). ...
This study explores the role of television meteorologists as key communicators of climate change across diverse global contexts. Utilizing a survey of 204 participants from 81 countries, it examines their perspectives, strategies, and challenges in addressing climate issues. Respondents, predominantly experienced professionals with meteorological and media expertise, highlighted the communicative potential of television weather segments, despite their brevity. Most participants reported strong climate knowledge, significant concern about its impacts, and reliance on trusted scientific sources like IPCC reports. Key barriers to effective communication included the complexity of climate science, misinformation, and limited public understanding. However, respondents identified strategies for improvement, such as tailored messaging, engaging visuals, and leveraging social media to reach younger audiences. Television emerged as the most impactful medium for raising awareness, complemented by print and digital platforms. The findings underscore the need for a global communication strategy emphasizing clear, actionable, and solutions-oriented messaging. By aligning international efforts with localized approaches, television meteorologists can play a pivotal role in bridging scientific insights and public engagement. This research highlights the critical importance of fostering informed societies, enacting national regulations, and advancing international agreements to drive collective action against climate change.
... Prior work provides such cluster analyses in other subject areas, for example, regarding general views on climate change and patterns of media use (Leiserowitz et al., 2021;Leiserowitz & Thaker, 2013;Metag et al., 2017), climate change awareness of young people , or climate anxiety (Wullenkord et al., 2024). However, apart from a few studies specialized in terms of content or target group (Owino et al., 2020;Shukla et al., 2019), there is no comparable study in the thematic field of CCA so far. ...
... While numerous individuals express anxiety over climate change, there remains considerable uncertainty the origins and effects of this anxiety (Bouman et al. 2020), particularly in terms of its ability to drive actions to combat climate issues and actual adoption of sustainable behaviors remains relatively low (Bouman et al. 2020;Leiserowitz et al. 2021). For instance, in a nationwide survey of American adults, although most acknowledged the importance of combating global warming, fewer participated in collective actions such as contacting government officials (11.9%), signing petitions (32.3%) and donating money (29.8%) (Latkin et al. 2022). ...
This study explores the intricate associations between climate change anxiety, sustainable trust and three aspects of sustainable consumption behaviors (quality of life, care for environment and care for future generations) among consumers in Vietnam and Italy, with a focus on the moderating role of nature connectedness and hyperopia psychology. Employing an exploratory sequential mixed‐methods approach that integrates both qualitative and quantitative techniques, the study initially conducted 20 in‐depth interviews to gain insights into the interplay between climate change‐related factors, trust, and sustainable consumer behaviors, which helped to formulate the quantitative research framework. Subsequently, a quantitative approach was utilized, gathering 681 online surveys from Vietnamese and Italian consumers, with the data assessed through structural equation modeling using SmartPLS software. This study is the first to reveal crucial theoretical insights into how climate change anxiety and sustainable trust, affected by climate change risk perception and climate change knowledge, impact three aspects of sustainable consumption behaviors: quality of life, care for the environment, and care for future generations. These effects are positively moderated by hyperopia and nature connectedness, providing profound understanding of consumer behavior between the two regions within sustainable consumption amid the urgent global climate change crisis. Scholars benefit from an enriched understanding of consumer behaviors amidst climate change anxiety, while policymakers, businesses, and advocates gain actionable insights to drive effective climate mitigation and adaptation strategies, which contributes to advancing the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals.
... Democrats. On the other hand, the Doubtful, who believe that climate change is either not happening or is merely a natural phenomenon, and the Dismissive, who tend to endorse climaterelated conspiracy theories, are overwhelmingly politically conservative and Republican (Leiserowitz et al. 2021). ...
This paper studies the climate-related discourses of two (sets of) actors with a significant following on the two poles of the current US climate debate: the climate advocacy of one of the most vociferous US environmentalists in office, House Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, and the delegitimizing climate counternarratives fashioned by mainstream conservative media outlet Fox News. Specifically, it centres on the processes that govern the argumentative framing of the 2019 policy proposal known as the (US) Green New Deal Resolution (GND) within Rep. Ocasio-Cortez's tweets and news segments on the GND posted on the official Fox News YouTube site. Guided by the analytical framework delineated in Fairclough and Mădroane (2020), this paper seeks to lay bare the ways in which these two deliberating agents made selected premises salient and overriding, used linguistic devices to (re)define and (re)categorize phenomena, and had recourse to macro speech acts such as explanations and narratives to support their intended aims. In exposing the mechanisms that govern the framing of the critical issue of climate change and the debate of an environmental policy, it hopes to contribute to understanding how framing strategies are employed within policy debates that unfold in less formal contexts and to shed light on the communication of climate-related issues in ways that more effectively resonate with the public and counteract climate scepticism and denial.
... Collective action can encompass many behaviours-from individual efforts like signing petitions to more collective efforts like protests-provided their aim is to bring about change for a group (Choma & McKeown, 2019;Wright, 2010;van Zomeren & Iyer, 2009). The climate movement consists of individuals "alarmed" about climate change who act to address the issue (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). Their actions, directed towards shared goals related to climate change, are therefore considered forms of collective action. ...
Factions of the climate movement sometimes advocate for escalating their tactics, and engage in disruptive mass civil disobedience in the effort to pressure governments to act on anthropogenic climate change. However, this disruptive action can often affect the general public, or other entities not directly responsible for the issue. Previous research on “the activist's dilemma” has demonstrated that extreme protest actions can erode public support for a movement (Feinberg et al., 2020). The present research proposes that this impact could be intensified when the protest behaviour affects people who are deemed as undeserving. Participants (N = 367) based in the United Kingdom (UK) were presented with a mock BBC news article about a climate protest. The protest behaviour was manipulated to be either moderate or extreme and the protest target was manipulated to be either deserving (i.e., a fossil fuel corporation and its staff) or undeserving (i.e., a shopping centre and the general public). Findings demonstrated that when the protest target was undeserving, participants perceived the protest behaviour to be more immoral, felt less emotional connection and social identification with the activists, and supported the movement less, compared to when the protest target was deserving. The protest target also moderated the effect of protest extremity, such that extreme protests were considered more immoral than moderate protests, and this effect was amplified when the protest target was undeserving. These findings suggest that climate protests which target the general public—or any entity perceived as undeserving of being affected by a protest—will be perceived more negatively and lead to lower support for the climate movement than protests which target those deemed more directly responsible for the issue of climate change.
... Growing scientific evidence highlighting the negative impacts of climate change [34] has not convinced many US Americans of the urgency of climate action [35]. Past research indicates that a non-trivial proportion of US Americans are either concerned about climate change (i.e., believe that the climate is changing but tend to believe that climate impacts are still distant in time and space), cautious about climate change (have not yet made up their minds); disengaged from climate change (know little about it); and doubtful about climate change (they do not think global warming is happening or they believe it is just a natural cycle) [36]. That is despite scholars making increasing connections between climate change and public health in recent years [37,38]. ...
Climate-facilitated spread of mosquito-borne pathogens to new environments elevates the importance of policies that limit greenhouse gas emissions as well as the development and uptake of new pharmaceutical interventions. Whereas past research attempts to bolster support for both through either climate or health risk communication, fewer attempt to combine the risks borne by climate change and infectious disease with a single messaging intervention, i.e., co-constitutive risk messaging (CCR), a strategy of an integrative approach we call One Health Communication. In a pre-registered experiment embedded in a nationally representative survey (N = 2,200), we test whether CCR messaging impacts support for pharmaceutical interventions to minimize dengue fever health risks and/or policy efforts to mitigate climate change. We find that CCR messages are generally effective at increasing support for pharmaceutical interventions aimed at ameliorating the health risks posed by dengue fever. Moreover, we find suggestive evidence that people who hold more collectivistic worldviews are especially receptive to messages that emphasize the public (vs. the personal) health risks of dengue fever. In post hoc exploratory analyses, we show that CCR messages affect public support for climate change mitigation policies among those who express doubts about human-caused climate change. We conclude by discussing the usefulness of CCR messaging and One Health Communication approaches more broadly in various strategic communication contexts and considering additional avenues for future research.
... Previous studies in the context of climate change and climate protection have used single or few very specific items to capture different forms of activism. 67 To capture political participation in a broad sense, we sampled items from nine frequently used and established scales 35 36 68-74 ; in a first qualitative step, two authors (LL and MG) excluded redundant items and combined similar statements into 25 categories. Then, based on existing items, one item was developed for each category. ...
Introduction
Climate change is a paramount global health threat with multifaceted implications. Societal change is required to mitigate the negative effects of climate change, as well as help people adapt to the associated health risks. This requires situation-specific, large-scale data to help scientists and policymakers understand public perceptions and behaviours and identify the levers to increase public readiness to act against climate change and protect health. The Planetary Health Action Survey (PACE) assesses this readiness to act as a regular monitoring of representative samples in Germany. The ongoing monitoring seeks to develop and refine an integrated conceptual model of the trait-like readiness to act, comprising policy acceptance, political participation and individual behaviours as indicators of the trait. It also proposes as set of determinants to explain different levels of readiness to act. This study protocol provides newly developed valid measurement instruments and the methodological details of the monitoring.
Method and analysis
PACE assesses indicators of the readiness to act and a set of sociocognitive factors predicting the readiness to act in continuous cross-sectional data collections. The latter comprise climate change knowledge, trust in institutions, perceived health risks, self-efficacy, social norms and perceived effectiveness of policy measures. The online questionnaire is updated regularly. Data collection involves non-probabilistic quota samples from Germany (n≈1000 at each collection).
Ethics and dissemination
The project adheres to the ethical guidelines of the University of Erfurt and the German Research Foundation. Ethical clearance was granted by the University’s Institutional Review Board (No #20220525/No #2024-01). Participants are guaranteed confidentiality and anonymity, and informed consent is obtained before participation. Results will be published in peer-reviewed journals. Additionally, we aim to inform and empower the public and support stakeholders (media, policymakers, climate protection organisations) in preparing climate communication and assisting policymakers through the project website including an interactive tool, detailed reports and short summaries for practitioners.
... In contrast, perceived experience is a consistently strong predictor of climate change beliefs (Ballew et al. 2022). Indeed, whereas some individuals will say the climate is changing in concerning ways, others will deny climate change or assert that it is nothing to worry about (Leiserowitz et al. 2021). This can lead to divergent opinions about the problem and the need for solutions. ...
Personal relevance is a key driver of individual climate action. It is also related to media use and interpersonal communication, which the current study examines from two perspectives. First, individuals may find climate change personally relevant because they experience it vicariously through the media and other information sources. Second, they may engage with climate change information because the issue is personally relevant. This study tested these models using structural equation modeling of online survey data from representative samples in Singapore (n = 1,997) and the United States (n = 2,009). Findings supported both models, albeit the first one more strongly. In the first model, the relationship between the use of traditional audiovisual media and personal relevance was serially mediated by perceived experience and perceived risk. The indirect effect was the same to two decimals in both countries (β =.12), suggesting that traditional audiovisual communication about climate change may be key to promoting public engagement with climate change. In the second model, personal relevance positively predicted the use of traditional audiovisual and textual media, social media, and interpersonal communication. In both countries, those paths had medium effect sizes (β >.29). These findings do not resolve which causal direction is correct, and it is possible that both occur simultaneously in sort of reinforcing spiral.
... 1 Even people who would like to take climate action may be thrown into paralysis and defeatism (Heglar, 2019;Hines et al., 1987). Indeed, Crosman et al. (2019) found their respondents to perceive individual actions in general to have lower response efficacy than collective and systemic actions, and Leiserowitz et al. (2021) found that a substantial subset of about 4 in 10 Americans believe that the actions of a single individual do not make a difference. ...
Climate communication, including from museums, often advocates individual lifestyle changes, and while these are necessary, the biggest emissions reductions will come from the systemic transition to renewable energy sources. The importance of this systemic change and its attainability has been under‐communicated in the public discourse, although bodies like the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change have increased their focus on it. We tested a message focusing on systemic aspects and actions that individuals can do to accelerate the renewable energy transition against a message advocating lifestyle change and a neutral message on the science of climate change. The neutral message elicited the highest levels of negative emotions, whereas the systemic message elicited higher levels of hope. These higher hope levels mediated increased behavioral intentions for doing the suggested system‐aimed actions and for making lifestyle changes. Our results suggest that museums and climate communicators should prominently feature systemic aspects of climate change mitigation.
... While some soil ecologists have appealed broadly to other scientists in academic journals through editorials, we argue that even more can be done by learning from the communication strategies used by climate scientists, whose prolific and diverse ways of communicating to different audiences have ensured that both academics and non-academics engage in discussions about the importance of climate change (Leiserowitz et al., 2021). For example, over a 50-year period, there were 500 editorials in just two academic journals (Science and Nature) that focused on climate change and the engagement of scientists with the public (Hulme et al., 2018). ...
Science communication is a key skill for undergraduates, but little research explores how biology students communicate about societally important, yet controversial topics like climate change. In this study, we explored whether and how biology students took on the role of science communicators about climate change. We surveyed 191 biology students at 38 universities about their climate change communication frequency and preparedness. We interviewed 25 of the survey participants about their experiences communicating about climate change and their needs when learning about climate change communication. We found that students were communicating about climate change and felt confident discussing the causes and effects of climate change, but they were less confident discussing the solutions to climate change. Students tended to “preach to the choir” by mostly communicating with those who already accepted climate change and avoiding interacting with others who disagreed with them about climate change. Students described a lack of science communication training but had a desire to be taught effective communication skills. Our interviews indicate that if these students felt more prepared to communicate, it may make them more willing to discuss climate change and particularly with people who have different views from them.
Effective communication is critical in efforts to limit and manage the risks of climate change. One empirical approach to crafting effective communication is to start with communication objectives, that is, the attitudes and actions one seeks to influence, then identify the beliefs that are most strongly associated with those objectives, and end by developing and delivering messages to promote those beliefs. This planning process can be iterative over time as the relevant key beliefs evolve. Here, we use data from a US nationally-representative survey conducted in 2023 (n = 1,011) to assess the degree to which six key truths often used by communicators to predict important attitudes (support for government action on climate change) and behaviors (seeking and sharing information about climate change, and engaging in political advocacy to support climate action): (1) climate change is happening (‘It’s real’); (2) human activity is causing climate change (‘It’s us’); (3) there is a scientific consensus about human-caused climate change (‘Experts agree’); (4) climate change harms people (‘It’s bad’); (5) a majority of people are concerned about climate change and support climate action (‘Others care’); and (6) actions can be taken to limit the harm (‘There’s hope’). We found that all six key truths are highly predictive of at least one, and in some instances many, of the attitudinal and behavioral outcomes analyzed. These findings suggest that communicating the six key truths about climate change has the potential to help build public and political will for climate solutions.
We study whether communication that attributes extreme weather to climate change along with individuals’ personal weather experiences can increase support for climate change action and policies. Using a preregistered representative survey experiment from Denmark, we randomly assign respondents to two treatments: (a) a hot weather prime that asks them to recall the extreme Danish summer of 2018; and (b) contextualizing information that links extreme weather events to climate change. We find that priming past heat experience does not foster increased climate awareness, opinions, or willingness to act or pay. We also fail to find that climate communication strengthens the effect of heat experience on climate attitudes or matters on its own. We argue, and provide tentative evidence, that this is because people in northern regions often recall heat spells as something pleasant rather than perceiving them as a risk. Similar results were obtained using quasi-experimental data on recent local temperature deviations instead of past heat experiences. Overall, the results suggest that what is objectively and meteorologically extreme may subjectively evoke positive feelings and therefore not increase support for climate action. We discuss the implications for climate communication and opinion formation.
Climate change is among the most critical global challenges, but international policies to meet the Paris Agreement targets remain inadequate. Despite a strong scientific consensus on climate change and its causes, a "consensus gap" persists between scientists and the public, especially regarding mitigation efforts. This thesis investigates factors contributing to this gap, focusing on how scientific information is filtered through societal paradigms, media, social interactions, and individual worldviews, ultimately shaping public opinion. It aims to identify strategies for bridging this gap and aligning public beliefs with scientific consensus. The Introduction outlines four filters that influence climate change opinions: the Dominant Social Paradigm (DSP), media framing, social interactions, and individual worldviews. Each chapter examines one or more of these filters to understand how information is reshaped into beliefs. Chapter 2 reviews the DSP in industrialized societies, highlighting its anthropocentric foundation, which prioritizes economic growth and individualism over environmental health. This mindset fosters a utilitarian view of nature, contributing to ecosystem degradation, climate change, and inequality. The chapter calls for systemic reforms in political, economic, and social systems to transition to a more sustainable, nature-inclusive DSP. Chapter 3 explores the roles of trust in science and media use in shaping climate beliefs through meta-analysis. Both trust and media use are found to positively influence pro-social beliefs, with user-generated media (e.g., social platforms) having a greater impact than traditional media. Personalized and relatable content on such platforms may reduce psychological distance from climate issues. The study recommends expanding research to include non-Eurocentric contexts to validate these findings. Chapter 4 analyzes how U.S. magazines frame accountability for climate change. While texts often hold governments and industries responsible, visuals tend to depict ordinary people and climate impacts, creating mixed messages that confuse audiences. The chapter advocates for more consistent and explicit framing of accountability across media. Chapter 5 examines Gen Z's perceptions of climate change accountability. Findings reveal that businesses are more often blamed for causing climate change, while consumers and society are seen as key to solutions. Social interactions, particularly among those with postmodern or integrative worldviews, enhance belief in scientific consensus. Modern worldviews, however, correlate with less discussion about climate change. Further research across diverse demographics and political contexts is recommended. An Intermezzo compares Dutch and American Gen Z perspectives, noting similar media exposure but differences in climate discussions and perceived self-efficacy. The Discussion critiques the industrialized DSP and its role in perpetuating media misrepresentations and public misperceptions of climate change. It recommends systemic changes to foster sustainable values, improve climate communication, and encourages different research approaches. More research into representations of accountability and expanding studies to newer platforms like TikTok and Instagram can help to better understand the consensus gap and drive meaningful societal change.
Although communication, broadly, is often identified as a key factor across campus sustainability initiatives, few studies have examined specific information behaviors that can affect reception of such efforts. We therefore seek to characterize motives for a key communication barrier to campus sustainability efforts: environmental information avoidance (IA), and to investigate whether these motives differ in relation to known or unknown information. This exploratory study thematically analyzed answers from an open-ended question on a questionnaire with faculty, staff and students on a U.S. university campus. We identified six environmental IA motives, ranging from information overload to efficacy constraints. Correlational analysis found significant associations between motives and known versus unknown information. The results extend research into campus sustainability communication efforts by characterizing a key barrier to such initiatives: environmental IA motives. Some of these motives appear in previous IA studies, strengthening confidence in their use across contexts, while others are newly identified, suggesting their specificity to campuses. Our novel results also suggest that IA motives depend on one’s familiarity with information. Our findings show that improving communication strategies to encourage campus sustainability efforts requires not only encouraging information seeking but also preventing IA. This research allows practitioners to better understand IA motives and customize communication strategies.
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 American cities (Chicago and Miami) watched either three localized climate reports or three standard weather reports featuring a prominent TV weathercaster from their city; each of the videos was between 1 and 2 min in duration. Participants’ understanding of climate change as real, human-caused, and locally relevant was assessed with a battery of questions after watching the set of three videos. Compared to participants who watched weather reports, participants who watched climate reports became significantly more likely to 1) understand that climate change is happening, is human-caused, and is causing harm in their community; 2) feel that climate change is personally relevant and express greater concern about it; and 3) feel that they understand how climate change works and express greater interest in learning more about it. In short, our findings demonstrate that watching even a brief amount of localized climate reporting (less than 6 min) delivered by TV weathercasters helps viewers develop a more accurate understanding of global climate change as a locally and personally relevant problem, and offer strong support for this promising approach to promoting enhanced public understanding of climate change through public media.
The Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University was established to develop and apply social science insights to help society make informed decisions that will stabilize the earth’s life-sustaining climate, and prevent further harm from climate change. In this chapter, we describe our program of research and outreach efforts, focusing on the cognitive and affective drivers of climate change issue engagement, the roles of mediated and interpersonal communication in shaping climate change beliefs, attitudes, and actions, and the applications of audience segmentation in developing outreach programs. We also describe the theoretical foundations of our work, and our three major outreach programs: Climate Matters, an innovative collaboration of climate scientists, meteorologists, and social scientists to foster climate change communication among television weathercasters; the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, an outgrowth of our research that identified a widespread lack of understanding that climate change affects human health; and RepublicEn, an initiative led by conservatives to catalyze a new narrative on climate change among conservatives, based in free-market thinking.
Americans tend to see global warming as a distant threat, but a small body of previous research suggests that information about the health implications of global warming may enhance public engagement with the issue. We sought to extend those findings with a longitudinal study that examined how Americans react to information about eight specific categories of health impacts from global warming. In winter 2017, we conducted a two-wave survey experiment using a quota sample of American adults (n = 2,254). Participants were randomly assigned to a treatment group who read eight brief essays about different categories of health impacts from global warming or to a control group who received no information. Participants answered questions before reading the essays, immediately after reading each essay and at the conclusion of all essays (treatment participants only), and 2-3 weeks later. Reading the information had small- to medium-sized effects on multiple indicators of participants' cognitive and affective engagement with global warming, especially among people who are politically moderate and somewhat conservative; some of these changes persisted 2-3 weeks later. Some impacts were seen as more novel and worrisome, including illnesses from contaminated food, water, and disease-carrying organisms. Our findings provide the most definitive evidence to date about the importance of raising awareness about the health impacts of global warming. While participants believed all of the essays as offered valuable information, educational efforts might most productively focus on impacts that are relatively less familiar and more emotionally engaging, such as food-, water-, and vector-borne illnesses.
Audience segmentation has long been used in marketing, public health, and communication, and is now becoming an important tool in the environmental domain as well. Global Warming's Six Americas is a well-established segmentation of Americans based on their climate change beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The original Six Americas model requires a 36 question-screener and although there is increasing interest in using these segments to guide education and outreach efforts, the number of survey items required is a deterrent. Using 14 national samples and machine learning algorithms, we identify a subset of four questions from the original 36, the Six Americas Short SurveY (SASSY), that accurately segment survey respondents into the Six Americas categories. The four items cover respondents' global warming risk perceptions, worry, expected harm to future generations, and personal importance of the issue. The true positive accuracy rate for the model ranges between 70% and 87% across the six segments on a 20% hold-out set. Similar results were achieved with four out-of-sample validation data sets. In addition, the screener showed test-retest reliability on an independent, two-wave sample. To facilitate further research and outreach, we provide a web-based application of the new short-screener.
Using national Australian samples collected in 2011 (n = 1927) and 2016 (n = 2503), we identified six Australian household segments which we labelled Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful and Dismissive. Between the two periods, we found the proportion of households in the Alarmed and Concerned segments was stable; however there was a decrease (28% to 20%) in the proportion of households in the Doubtful and Dismissive segments and an increase (27% to 33%) in the Cautious and Disengaged segments. We found that a greater proportion of households have personally experienced climate change, and were more likely to believe in human causation and believe that there is a scientific consensus about the issue. However, there was evidence of issue fatigue. Households were less likely to report that they had thought about climate change or talked about it with their friends in 2016 relative to 2011. They were also less likely to pursue certain climate friendly behaviours or reward or punish companies for their climate behaviours. These findings suggest a need to motivate households to maintain efforts to mitigate climate change, particularly the Cautious and Disengaged households that are more amenable to changing their views about this issue.
This report, the seventh on Global Warming’s Six Americas, focuses on the segments' understanding of the human health consequences of global warming, as recently described in the U.S. National Climate Assessment. Our findings indicate that even the segments most concerned about global warming have little understanding of its human health consequences. The limited awareness of global warming's health consequences strongly suggests a need for more public education on the topic.
Global climate change – a threat of potentially unprecedented magnitude – is viewed from a variety of perspectives by Americans, with some dismissing the danger, some entirely unaware of its significance, and still others highly concerned and motivated to take action. Understanding the sources of these diverse perspectives is key to effective audience engagement: Messages that ignore the cultural and political underpinnings of people's views on climate change are less likely to succeed. In this chapter, we describe Global Warming's Six Americas – six unique audience segments that view and respond to the issue in distinct ways. We describe the beliefs and characteristics of each group and discuss methods of effectively communicating with them in light of: (1) the pro-or counter-attitudinal nature of messages on the issue for each group; (2) their willingness to exert the cognitive effort necessary to process information on the issue; (3) their propensity for counter-arguing, motivated reasoning and message distortion; and (4) the communication content they say they most desire and, hence, would be most likely to process and accept.
A nationally representative telephone survey (n = 1,006) was conducted to understand how different groups of Singaporeans regard the issue of climate change and their inclination toward action in dealing with it. We measured attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of the problem of climate change and the role of various stakeholders in addressing it. The data were subjected to a latent class analysis to produce three distinctive segments of the population: the concerned, the disengaged, and the passive. These segments stand in contrast to those discovered in the United States, Australia, Germany, and India and suggest different strategies for public engagement campaigns. The results also clarify the need to account for national idiosyncrasies when promoting adaptation to, or mitigation of, climate change in different parts of the world.
Climate change activism has been uncommon in the U.S., but a growing national movement is pressing for a political response. To assess the cognitive and affective precursors of climate activism, we hypothesize and test a two-stage information-processing model based on social cognitive theory. In stage 1, expectations about climate change outcomes and perceived collective efficacy to mitigate the threat are hypothesized to influence affective issue involvement and support for societal mitigation action. In stage 2, beliefs about the effectiveness of political activism, perceived barriers to activist behaviors and opinion leadership are hypothesized to influence intended and actual activism. To test these hypotheses, we fit a structural equation model using nationally representative data. The model explains 52 percent of the variance in a latent variable representing three forms of climate change activism: contacting elected representatives; supporting organizations working on the issue; and attending climate change rallies or meetings. The results suggest that efforts to increase citizen activism should promote specific beliefs about climate change, build perceptions that political activism can be effective, and encourage interpersonal communication on the issue.
Ever-increasing global warming has created a societal imperative to reach and engage youth, whose futures are at risk. In this paper, we evaluate the climate science knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, behavior and communication impact of an entertainment-education high school assembly program in a random sample of 49 schools (from population of 779 that received the intervention) and a panel of 1,241 students. Pre- and post-assembly surveys composed of questions from the Global Warming’s Six Americas segmentation and intervention-specific measures were administered in classrooms. We demonstrate that exposure to climate science in an engaging edutainment format changes youths’ knowledge, beliefs, involvement, and behavior positively and moves them to audience segments that are more engaged in the issue. The net impact of scaled, multi-sensory, captivating programs for youth could be a population shift in science-informed engagement in the issue of climate change. In addition, such programs can inspire youth for deeper engagement in school programs, personal action, and political and consumer advocacy.
People's attitudes toward climate change differ, and these differences may correspond to distinct patterns of media use and information seeking. However, studies extending analyses of attitude types and their specific media diets to countries beyond the United States are lacking. We use a secondary analysis of survey data from Germany to identify attitudes toward climate change among the German public and specify those segments of the population based on their media use and information seeking. Similar to the Global Warming's Six Americas study, we find distinct attitudes (Global Warming's Five Germanys) that differ in climate change-related perceptions as well as in media use and communicative behavior. These findings can help tailor communication campaigns regarding climate change to specific audiences.
© The Author(s) 2015.
There is often a curious distinction between what the scientific community and the general population believe to be true of dire scientific issues, and this skepticism tends to vary markedly across groups. For instance, in the case of climate change, Republicans (conservatives) are especially skeptical of the relevant science, particularly when they are compared with Democrats (liberals). What causes such radical group differences? We suggest, as have previous accounts, that this phenomenon is often motivated. However, the source of this motivation is not necessarily an aversion to the problem, per se, but an aversion to the solutions associated with the problem. This difference in underlying process holds important implications for understanding, predicting, and influencing motivated skepticism. In 4 studies, we tested this solution aversion explanation for why people are often so divided over evidence and why this divide often occurs so saliently across political party lines. Studies 1, 2, and 3-using correlational and experimental methodologies-demonstrated that Republicans' increased skepticism toward environmental sciences may be partly attributable to a conflict between specific ideological values and the most popularly discussed environmental solutions. Study 4 found that, in a different domain (crime), those holding a more liberal ideology (support for gun control) also show skepticism motivated by solution aversion. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved).
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. 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. 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 - a view shown to be widely held by the public. 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.
Achieving national reductions in greenhouse gas emissions will require public support for climate and energy policies and changes in population behaviors. Audience segmentation--a process of identifying coherent groups within a population--can be used to improve the effectiveness of public engagement campaigns.
In Fall 2008, we conducted a nationally representative survey of American adults (n = 2,164) to identify audience segments for global warming public engagement campaigns. By subjecting multiple measures of global warming beliefs, behaviors, policy preferences, and issue engagement to latent class analysis, we identified six distinct segments ranging in size from 7 to 33% of the population. These six segments formed a continuum, from a segment of people who were highly worried, involved and supportive of policy responses (18%), to a segment of people who were completely unconcerned and strongly opposed to policy responses (7%). Three of the segments (totaling 70%) were to varying degrees concerned about global warming and supportive of policy responses, two (totaling 18%) were unsupportive, and one was largely disengaged (12%), having paid little attention to the issue. Certain behaviors and policy preferences varied greatly across these audiences, while others did not. Using discriminant analysis, we subsequently developed 36-item and 15-item instruments that can be used to categorize respondents with 91% and 84% accuracy, respectively.
In late 2008, Americans supported a broad range of policies and personal actions to reduce global warming, although there was wide variation among the six identified audiences. To enhance the impact of campaigns, government agencies, non-profit organizations, and businesses seeking to engage the public can selectively target one or more of these audiences rather than address an undifferentiated general population. Our screening instruments are available to assist in that process.
Climate change is taking a toll on human health, and some leaders in the public health community have urged their colleagues to give voice to its health implications. Previous research has shown that Americans are only dimly aware of the health implications of climate change, yet the literature on issue framing suggests that providing a novel frame--such as human health--may be potentially useful in enhancing public engagement. We conducted an exploratory study in the United States of people's reactions to a public health-framed short essay on climate change.
U.S. adult respondents (n = 70), stratified by six previously identified audience segments, read the essay and were asked to highlight in green or pink any portions of the essay they found "especially clear and helpful" or alternatively "especially confusing or unhelpful." Two dependent measures were created: a composite sentence-specific score based on reactions to all 18 sentences in the essay; and respondents' general reactions to the essay that were coded for valence (positive, neutral, or negative). We tested the hypothesis that five of the six audience segments would respond positively to the essay on both dependent measures.
There was clear evidence that two of the five segments responded positively to the public health essay, and mixed evidence that two other responded positively. There was limited evidence that the fifth segment responded positively. Post-hoc analysis showed that five of the six segments responded more positively to information about the health benefits associated with mitigation-related policy actions than to information about the health risks of climate change.
Presentations about climate change that encourage people to consider its human health relevance appear likely to provide many Americans with a useful and engaging new frame of reference. Information about the potential health benefits of specific mitigation-related policy actions appears to be particularly compelling. We believe that the public health community has an important perspective to share about climate change, a perspective that makes the problem more personally relevant, significant, and understandable to members of the public.
Audience segmentation is widely regarded as essential to effective health communication campaign efforts. Nonetheless, its practice is typically ad hoc. The conceptual history and theoretical bases for audience segmentation are reviewed, and typical audience segmentation strategies for health communication efforts are described and critiqued. An analogy is drawn between the methodological problems associated with audience segmentation and those of multivariate classification and taxonomy in botany and zoology. Cluster analytic techniques responsive to these issues are described, as are applications of these techniques for analysis of health communication campaign audiences. Approaches that would permit widespread use of such segmentation strategies are discussed, and recommendations for such efforts are made.
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 impact of the Climate Matters program on American’s science-based understanding of climate change. We analyzed three sets of data in a multi-level model: 20 nationally-representative surveys of American adults conducted bi-annually since 2010 (n=23,635); data on when and how frequently Climate Matters stories were aired in each US media market; and data describing the demographic, economic and climatic conditions in each media market. We hypothesized that: (1) Reporting about climate change by TV weathercasters will increase science-based public understanding of climate change; and (2) this effect will be stronger for people who pay more attention to local weather forecasts. Our results partially support the first hypothesis: controlling for market-level factors (population size, temperature, political ideology, and economic prosperity) and individual-level factors (age, education, income, gender, and political ideology), there is a significant positive association between the amount of Climate Matters reporting and some key indicators of science-based understanding (including that climate change is occurring, primarily human caused, and causes harm). However, there was not evidence for the second hypothesis. These findings suggest that climate reporting by TV weathercasters, as enabled by the Climate Matters program, may be increasing the climate literacy the American people.
The Gateway Belief Model describes a process of attitudinal change where a shift in people's perception of the scientific consensus on an issue leads to subsequent changes in their attitudes which in turn predict changes in support for public action. In the current study, we present the first large-scale confirmatory replication of the GBM. Specifically, we conducted a consensus message experiment on a national quota sample of the US population (N=6,301). Results support the mediational hypotheses of the GBM: an experimentally induced change in perceived scientific consensus causes subsequent changes in cognitive (belief) and affective (worry) judgments about climate change, which in turn are associated with changes in support for public action. The scientific consensus message also had a direct effect on support for public action. We further found an interaction
with both political ideology and prior attitudes such that conservatives and climate change disbelievers were more likely to update their beliefs toward the consensus. We discuss the model's theoretical and practical implications, including why conveying scientific consensus can help reduce politically motivated reasoning
Agricultural communicators and extension educators need to make scientific information about global warming, a critical component of climate change, more salient to the general public to increase knowledge and to encourage people to take action to mitigate its effect; however, views on global warming are diverse. Scientists have repeatedly shown human activity is directly impacting the Earth’s climate. Despite this, a segment of the U.S. population (including politicians with a large amount of influence) are very vocal about their mistrust of climate science and lack of belief in global warming. States located on the coasts are affected by climate change the most where extreme weather events impact the safety of residents and agricultural production more often than those located inland. This research used the Six Americas framework to identify the diverse segments of believers/nonbelievers in Florida. Findings revealed 87% of respondents believed in climate change but are not actively engaged in its mitigation. Recommendations are offered on how agricultural communicators can reach diverse segments of the population and the role extension educators can play in their communities to turn difficult to understand climate science into something the public can understand and get behind.
Does the state of the economy condition public concern for the environment? Scholars have long argued that environmental preferences decline during economic downturns as individuals prioritize short-term economic needs over longer-term environmental concerns. Yet, this assumption has rarely been subjected to rigorous empirical scrutiny at the individual level. The presumed link between economic and environmental preferences is revisited, using the first individual-level opinion panel (n = 1043) of US climate attitudes, incorporating both self-reported and objective economic data. In contrast with prior studies that emphasize the role of economic downturns in driving environmental preference shifts, using a stronger identification strategy, there is little evidence that changes in either individual economic fortunes or local economic conditions are associated with decreased belief that climate change is happening or reduced prioritization of climate policy action. Instead, the evidence suggests that climate belief declines are associated with shifting political cues. These findings have important implications for understanding the dynamics of political conflict over environmental policy globally.
Surprisingly few individuals who are highly concerned about climate change take action to influence public policies. To assess social-psychological and cognitive drivers of public-sphere climate actions of Global Warming's Six Americas 'Alarmed' segment, we developed a behaviour model and tested it using structural equation modelling of survey data from Vermont, USA (N = 702). Our model, which integrates social cognitive theory, social norms research, and value belief norm theory, explains 36-64% of the variance in five behaviours. Here we show descriptive social norms, self-efficacy, personal response efficacy, and collective response efficacy as strong driving forces of: voting, donating, volunteering, contacting government officials, and protesting about climate change. The belief that similar others took action increased behaviour and strengthened efficacy beliefs, which also led to greater action. Our results imply that communication efforts targeting Alarmed individuals and their public actions should include strategies that foster beliefs about positive descriptive social norms and efficacy.
Widespread political polarization on issues related to environmental conservation may be partially explained by the chronic framing of persuasive messages in ideological and moral terms that hold greater appeal for liberals and egalitarians. A series of three experiments examined the extent to which variations in the moral framing of pro-environmental messaging affect liberals' vs. conservatives' conservation intentions, climate change attitudes, and donations to an environmental organization. While liberals did not generally differ across conditions, conservatives shifted substantially in the pro-environmental direction after exposure to a binding moral frame, in which protecting the natural environment was portrayed as a matter of obeying authority, defending the purity of nature, and demonstrating one's patriotism to the United States. This shift was pronounced when conservatives perceived the congruent appeal to be a stronger argument. Evidence of mediated moderation is also presented, in which the attitudinal and behavioral shifts for conservatives were a function of the degree to which the values present in the pro-environmental appeal were perceived as coming from the ingroup. Discussion focuses on future directions for more precisely specifying moral framing effects, and on considering the pros and cons of targeted messaging for the sustainability of environmental attitude change.
American evangelicals have long played a significant role in American culture and politics. Drawing from a nationally representative survey, this article describes American evangelicals' global warming risk assessments and policy preferences and tests several theory-based factors hypothesized to influence their views. American evangelicals are less likely than non-evangelicals to believe that global warming is happening, caused mostly by human activities, and causing serious harm, yet a majority of evangelicals are concerned about climate change and support a range of climate change and energy related policies. Multiple regression analyses found that the combination of biospheric, altruistic, and egoistic value orientations is a more significant predictor of evangelicals' risk assessments and policy support than negative affect, egalitarian or individualistic worldviews, or socio-demographic variables.
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