“Global Warming” versus “Climate Change” and the Influence of Labeling on Public Perceptions

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathon P. Schuldt
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Social Cognitive ◽  
Survey Methodology ◽  
Global Environmental Change ◽  
Public Perceptions ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Social Cognitive Models

Communicating about climate change involves more than choices about which content to convey and how to convey it. It also involves a choice about how to label the issue itself, given the various terms used to represent the issue in public discourse—including “global warming,” “climate change,” and “global environmental change,” among others. An emerging literature in climate change communication and survey methodology has begun to examine the influence of labeling on public perceptions, including the cognitive accessibility of climate-related knowledge, affective responses and related judgments (problem seriousness and personal concern), and certainty that the phenomenon exists. The present article reviews this emerging work, drawing on framing theory and related social-cognitive models of information processing to shed light on the possible mechanisms that underlie labeling effects. In doing so, the article highlights the value of distinguishing between labeling and framing effects in communication research and theory, and calls for additional research into the boundary conditions of these and other labeling effects in science communication.

Political Preferences, Personality Traits, and Environmentalism

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alistair Soutter ◽  
René Mõttus
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Personality Traits ◽  
Public Discourse ◽  
Environmental Attitudes ◽  
Scientific Evidence ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Anthropogenic Climate Change ◽  
Political Preferences ◽  
Party Voting

Although the scientific evidence of anthropogenic climate change continues to grow, public discourse still reflects a high level of scepticism and political polarisation towards anthropogenic climate change. In this study (N = 499) we attempted to replicate and expand upon an earlier finding that environmental terminology (“climate change” versus “global warming”) could partly explain political polarisation in environmental scepticism (Schuldt, Konrath, & Schwarz, 2011). Participants completed a series of online questionnaires assessing personality traits, political preferences, belief in environmental phenomenon, and various pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours. Those with a Conservative political orientation and/or party voting believed less in both climate change and global warming compared to those with a Liberal orientation and/or party voting. Furthermore, there was an interaction between continuously measured political orientation, but not party voting, and question wording on beliefs in environmental phenomena. Personality traits did not confound these effects. Furthermore, continuously measured political orientation was associated with pro-environmental attitudes, after controlling for personality traits, age, gender, area lived in, income, and education. The personality domains of Openness, and Conscientiousness, were consistently associated with pro-environmental attitudes and behaviours, whereas Agreeableness was associated with pro-environmental attitudes but not with behaviours. This study highlights the importance of examining personality traits and political preferences together and suggests ways in which policy interventions can best be optimised to account for these individual differences.

scholarly journals What Framework Promotes Saliency of Climate Change Issues on Online Public Agenda: A Quantitative Study of Online Knowledge Community Quora

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 1619 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wen Shi ◽  
Changfeng Chen ◽  
Jie Xiong ◽  
Haohuan Fu
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Future Climate Change ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
Knowledge Community ◽  
The Public ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Public Agenda

Though scientists have achieved consensus on the severity and urgency of climate change years ago, the public still considers this issue not that important, as the influence of climate change is widely thought to be geographically and temporally bounded. The discrepancy between scientific consensus and public’s misperception calls for more dedicated public communication strategies to get climate change issues back on the front line of the public agenda. Based on the large-scale data acquired from the online knowledge community Quora, we conduct a computational linguistic analysis followed by the regression model to address the climate change communication from the agenda setting perspective. To be specific, our results find that certain narrative strategies may make climate change issues more salient by engaging public into discussion or evoking their long-term interest. Though scientific communicators have long been blaming lack of scientific literacy for low saliency of climate change issues, cognitive framework is proved to be least effective in raising public concern. Affective framework is relatively more influential in motivating people to participate in climate change discussion: the stronger the affective intensity is, the more prominent the issue is, but the affective polarity is not important. Perceptual framework is most powerful in promoting public discussion and the only variable that can significantly motivate the public’s long-term desire to track issues, among which feeling plays the most critical role compared with seeing and hearing. This study extends existing science communication literature by shedding light on the role of previously ignored affective and perceptual frameworks in making issues salient and the conclusions may provide theoretical and practical implications for future climate change communication.

scholarly journals The influence of temperature on #ClimateChange and #GlobalWarming discourses on Twitter

2017 ◽  
Vol 16 (05) ◽  
pp. A01 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sara K. Yeo ◽  
Zachary Handlos ◽  
Alexandra Karambelas ◽  
Leona Yi-Fan Su ◽  
Kathleen M. Rose ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Extreme Temperature ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Twitter Data ◽  
Influence Of Temperature On ◽  
Temperature Records ◽  
Learning Software ◽  
Different Content ◽  
The Relationship

Research suggests non-experts associate different content with the terms “global warming” and “climate change.” We test this claim with Twitter content using supervised learning software to categorize tweets by topic and explore differences between content using “global warming” and “climate change” between 1 January 2012 and 31 March 2014. Twitter data were combined with temperature records to observe the extent to which temperature was associated with Twitter discussions. We then used two case studies to examine the relationship between extreme temperature events and Twitter content. Our findings underscore the importance of considering climate change communication on social media.

The Effects of Establishing Intimacy and Consubstantiality on Group Discussions About Climate Change Solutions

2020 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 369-394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emma Frances Bloomfield ◽  
Lyn M. Van Swol ◽  
Chen-Ting Chang ◽  
Stephanie Willes ◽  
Paul Hangsan Ahn
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Rhetorical Analysis ◽  
Word Count ◽  
Group Discussions ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Climate Change Information ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Linguistic Inquiry ◽  
The Many

The many obstacles to productive climate change communication necessitate new approaches. Based on science communication strategies that promote engagement rather than knowledge transfer, we assigned participants ( N = 329) to randomized chat groups that discussed similarities between group members (intimacy condition) or information about climate change (information condition). This study combined Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) and rhetorical analysis and found that groups in the intimacy condition were more likely to exhibit commonality than groups in the information condition. This study offers practical strategies for having productive discussions on controversial scientific topics such as climate change.

scholarly journals Politics and global warming, April 2020

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony Leiserowitz ◽  
Edward Maibach ◽  
Seth A. Rosenthal ◽  
John Kotcher ◽  
Matthew Thomas Ballew ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Representative Survey ◽  
Climate Change Communication ◽  
American Mind ◽  
University Center ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Margin Of Error ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Registered Voters

Drawing on a nationally representative survey (N = 1,029; including 911 registered voters), this report describes how Democratic, Independent, and Republican registered voters view global warming, climate and energy policies, and personal and collective action. This report is based on findings from a nationally representative survey – Climate Change in the American Mind – conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (climatecommunication.yale.edu) and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication (climatechangecommunication.org), Interview dates: April 7 – 17, 2020. Average margin of error +/- 3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

scholarly journals Exploring the digital media ecology: insights from a study of healthy diets and climate change communication on digital and social media

2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (03) ◽  
pp. A02
Author(s):  
Emma Weitkamp ◽  
Elena Milani ◽  
Andy Ridgway ◽  
Clare Wilkinson
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Digital Media ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Media Ecology ◽  
The Public ◽  
High Profile ◽  
Change Communication ◽  
Healthy Diets ◽  
Survey Results ◽  
The Media

This study explores the types of actors visible in the digital science communication landscape in the Netherlands, Serbia and the U.K. Using the Koru model of science communication as a basis, we consider how science communicators craft their messages and which channels they are using to reach audiences. The study took as case studies the topics of climate change and healthy diets to enable comparison across countries, topics and platforms. These findings are compared with the results from a survey of over 200 science communication practitioners based in these countries. We find that although traditional media are challenged by the variety of different new entrants into the digital landscape, our results suggest that the media and journalists remain highly visible. In addition, our survey results suggest that many science communicators may struggle to gain traction in the crowded digital ecology, and in particular, that relatively few scientists and research institutions and universities are achieving a high profile in the public digital media ecology of science communication.

Research-Based Climate Change Public Education Programs

2014 ◽  
pp. 1113-1123
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Hartman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Opinion Leadership ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Effective Strategies

Despite widespread natural disasters being linked to a warming planet, Americans continue to be a nation divided on climate change-related issues. This division and resulting disengagement stand between the implementation of new and effective policies. There is a critical need to move beyond the gridlocked debate on global warming to a place where decision makers can begin to develop effective strategies to make our communities and future more resilient. An informed and engaged public is necessary to implement change. Utilizing the research behind science communication, opinion leadership, and issue framing, effective public education programs and campaigns can be developed to build public understanding and engagement. This is explored in this chapter.

Research-Based Climate Change Public Education Programs

2017 ◽  
pp. 992-1003
Author(s):  
Mary Beth Hartman
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Science Communication ◽  
Decision Makers ◽  
Public Understanding ◽  
Opinion Leadership ◽  
Issue Framing ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Effective Strategies

Despite widespread natural disasters being linked to a warming planet, Americans continue to be a nation divided on climate change-related issues. This division and resulting disengagement stand between the implementation of new and effective policies. There is a critical need to move beyond the gridlocked debate on global warming to a place where decision makers can begin to develop effective strategies to make our communities and future more resilient. An informed and engaged public is necessary to implement change. Utilizing the research behind science communication, opinion leadership, and issue framing, effective public education programs and campaigns can be developed to build public understanding and engagement. This is explored in this chapter.

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