Public understanding of climate change in the United States.
Elke U. Weber,Paul C. Stern +1 more
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TLDR
Way in which psychology can help to improve public understanding of climate change and link a better understanding to action is discussed, supported by a constructivist account of human judgment.Abstract:
This article considers scientific and public understandings of climate change and addresses the following question: Why is it that while scientific evidence has accumulated to document global climate change and scientific opinion has solidified about its existence and causes, U.S. public opinion has not and has instead become more polarized? Our review supports a constructivist account of human judgment. Public understanding is affected by the inherent difficulty of understanding climate change, the mismatch between people's usual modes of understanding and the task, and, particularly in the United States, a continuing societal struggle to shape the frames and mental models people use to understand the phenomena. We conclude by discussing ways in which psychology can help to improve public understanding of climate change and link a better understanding to action. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2011 APA, all rights reserved).read more
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The Polarizing Impact of Science Literacy and Numeracy on Perceived Climate Change Risks
Dan M. Kahan,Ellen Peters,Maggie Wittlin,Paul Slovic,Lisa Larrimore Ouellette,Donald Braman,Gregory N. Mandel +6 more
TL;DR: This paper found that those with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity were not the most concerned about climate change, rather, they were the ones among whom cultural polarization was greatest, suggesting that public divisions over climate change stem not from the public's incomprehension of science but from a distinctive conflict of interest.
Journal ArticleDOI
The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks
Dan M. Kahan,Ellen Peters,Maggie Wittlin,Paul Slovic,Lisa Larrimore Ouellette,Donald Braman,Gregory N. Mandel +6 more
TL;DR: The authors found that individuals with the highest degrees of science literacy and technical reasoning capacity are not the most concerned about climate change and are the most culturally polarized, while those with the lowest degrees are concerned.
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Shifting public opinion on climate change: an empirical assessment of factors influencing concern over climate change in the U.S., 2002–2010
TL;DR: The authors conducted an empirical analysis of the factors affecting U.S. public concern about the threat of climate change between January 2002 and December 2010, using data from 74 separate surveys over a 9-year period.
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