scholarly journals How Is Climate Change Knowledge Distributed among the Population in Singapore? A Demographic Analysis of Actual Knowledge and Illusory Knowledge

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (9) ◽  
pp. 3782
Author(s):  
Xiaodong Yang ◽  
Lai Wei ◽  
Qi Su
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Demographic Analysis ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Types Of Knowledge ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Cognitive Miser

Due to the crucial role of knowledge in promoting public engagement with climate change, this study made an in-depths examination of the distribution of climate change knowledge among different demographic groups. Guided by information deficit model and cognitive miser model, two types of knowledge were investigated, including actual knowledge and illusory knowledge. Using a nationally representative survey in Singapore, this study found demographic effects in climate change knowledge distribution. Specifically, a series of independent sample t-test revealed that the males had more actual knowledge of climate change than the females. The middle aged and elderly adults had less actual knowledge but more illusory knowledge of climate change than the young adults. Compare to the more educated people, the less educated people had more illusory knowledge but less actual knowledge of climate change. People from low-income households reported lower levels of actual knowledge but higher levels of illusory knowledge than those from high-income households. Regarding these significant differences in climate change knowledge among different demographic groups, possible reasons for these variations and implications for designing public education programs are discussed.

ADAPTATION TO CLIMATE CHANGE IN LOW-INCOME COUNTRIES: LESSONS FROM CURRENT RESEARCH AND NEEDS FROM FUTURE RESEARCH

2012 ◽  
Vol 03 (02) ◽  
pp. 1250005 ◽  
Author(s):  
ARUN S. MALIK ◽  
STEPHEN C. SMITH
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Adaptation To Climate Change ◽  
Autonomous Adaptation ◽  
Adaptation Decision ◽  
Planned Adaptation ◽  
The Relationship

We put in perspective the papers in this special issue by characterizing different forms of adaptation to climate change and discussing the role of adaptation in a developing country context. We highlight adaptation decision-making under uncertainty, empirics of autonomous adaptation, and data and methodological challenges. We identify unresolved questions, emphasizing interactions between autonomous and planned adaptation, adaptation externalities, and the relationship between adaptation and conflict.

scholarly journals The Role of Felt Responsibility in Climate Change Political Participation

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sammi Munson ◽  
John Kotcher ◽  
Edward Maibach ◽  
Seth A Rosenthal ◽  
Anthony Leiserowitz
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Positive Relationship ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Behavioral Intent ◽  
Significant Positive Relationship ◽  
Presidential Candidates ◽  
Past Behavior ◽  
Felt Responsibility ◽  
Nationally Representative

Abstract This research letter investigates the role of feelings of responsibility to reduce climate change (i.e., “felt responsibility”) as an antecedent to climate change related political behaviors and intentions, including willingness to join a campaign, likelihood of supporting pro-climate presidential candidates, and past contact with elected officials. Using nationally representative survey data (n = 1,029) we find that felt responsibility has a significant positive relationship with future behavioral intent, but not past behavior. Implications and future research are discussed.

scholarly journals Does Knowledge about Climate Change Predict  Concern?  Concern for Climate Change and the Knowledge-Deficit Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alana Cornforth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Perceived Knowledge ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Deficit ◽  
Group Outcomes ◽  
High Concern ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Deficit Theory ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>The knowledge-deficit theory suggests that if people are not concerned about climate change, it is because there is a deficit in their knowledge of climate change—they do not properly comprehend the scientific consensus. So do people with higher levels of knowledge about climate change feel more concerned than those with lower knowledge levels? Existing research has been inconclusive but suggests differences between perceived and actual knowledge. This thesis comprises two studies. Study 1 tests the effect of perceived knowledge on concern for climate change with a nationally representative, randomly selected sample of 269 New Zealanders. Study 2 tests the effect of actual knowledge about climate change on concern with a sample of 452 New Zealanders recruited via snowball sampling. Results supported the knowledge-deficit theory for concern for climate change, but only when actual knowledge was tested. Participants in both Study 1 and Study 2 with high perceived knowledge did not have correspondingly high levels of concern, but Study 2 participants with high actual knowledge of climate change did also have high levels of concern. Other variables tested that consistently predicted high concern for climate change were perceived efficacy (the perception that one's actions will influence group outcomes) and environmental values. Demographic variables were not strong or consistent predictors of concern, but overall, younger female participants tended to display higher levels of concern than older male participants.</p>

Do Hostile Media Perceptions Lead to Action? The Role of Hostile Media Perceptions, Political Efficacy, and Ideology in Predicting Climate Change Activism

2015 ◽  
Vol 44 (8) ◽  
pp. 1099-1124 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lauren Feldman ◽  
P. Sol Hart ◽  
Anthony Leiserowitz ◽  
Edward Maibach ◽  
Connie Roser-Renouf
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Political Efficacy ◽  
Mediation Model ◽  
Moderated Mediation Model ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Indirect Relationship ◽  
Practical Implications ◽  
Hostile Media

This study joins a growing body of research that demonstrates the behavioral consequences of hostile media perceptions. Using survey data from a nationally representative U.S. sample, this study tests a moderated-mediation model examining the direct and indirect effects of hostile media perceptions on climate change activism. The model includes external political efficacy as a mediator and political ideology and internal political efficacy as moderators. The results show that hostile media perceptions have a direct association with climate activism that is conditioned by political ideology: Among liberals, hostile media perceptions promote activism, whereas among conservatives, they decrease activism. Hostile media perceptions also have a negative, indirect relationship with activism that is mediated through external political efficacy; however, this relationship is conditioned by both ideology and internal political efficacy. Specifically, the indirect effect manifests exclusively among conservatives and moderates who have low internal efficacy. Theoretical, normative, and practical implications are discussed.

scholarly journals Disease appearance and evolution against a background of climate change and reduced resources

2011 ◽  
Vol 369 (1942) ◽  
pp. 1719-1729 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sophie Yacoub ◽  
Susy Kotit ◽  
Magdi H. Yacoub
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Heart Disease ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Low Income Countries ◽  
Neglected Diseases ◽  
Disease Evolution ◽  
Mortality And Morbidity ◽  
Poor Countries ◽  
Vector Borne Diseases

Global health continues to face increasing challenges owing to a variety of reasons that include the almost constant changes in disease appearance and evolution. Most, but not all, of these changes affect low-income countries and are influenced by climate change. Tracking the recent and anticipated changes in the demographics and global distribution of these changes is essential for evolving effective new methods for dealing with the problems. The recent recognition by the United Nations of the importance of non-communicable diseases is a major positive step. For the sake of this paper, the following diseases were chosen: dengue and malaria, to highlight the role of climate change on vector-borne diseases. Drug-resistant tuberculosis illustrates the role of globalization and reduced resources on disease evolution. The continuing rise in cardiovascular mortality and morbidity, particularly in resource-poor countries is largely attributed to lack of preventive and therapeutic measures against such conditions as hypertension, diabetes, atherosclerosis and congenital heart disease as well as neglected diseases, of which Chagas and rheumatic heart disease will be discussed further.

scholarly journals How others drive our sense of understanding of policies

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-26
Author(s):  
NATHANIEL RABB ◽  
JOHN J. HAN ◽  
STEVEN A. SLOMAN
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Public Policy ◽  
Climate Policy ◽  
Perceived Knowledge ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Deficit Model ◽  
Policy Issues ◽  
Lack Of Information ◽  
Cognition Model ◽  
People’S Attitudes

Abstract Five experiments are reported to compare models of attitude formation about hot-button policy issues like climate change. In broad strokes, the deficit model states that incorrect opinions are a result of a lack of information, while the cultural cognition model states that opinions are formed to maximize congruence with the group that one affiliates with. The community of knowledge hypothesis takes an integrative position. It states that opinions are based on perceived knowledge, but that perceptions are partly determined by the knowledge that sits in the heads of others in the community. We use the fact that people's sense of understanding is affected by knowledge of others’ understanding to arbitrate among these views in the domain of public policy. In all experiments (N = 1767), we find that the contagious sense of understanding is nonpartisan and robust to experimental manipulations intended to eliminate it. While ideology clearly affects people's attitudes, sense of understanding does as well, but level of actual knowledge does not. And the extent to which people overestimate their own knowledge partly determines the extremity of their position. The pattern of results is most consistent with the community of knowledge hypothesis. Implications for climate policy are considered.

scholarly journals Diverse segments of the US public underestimate the environmental concerns of minority and low-income Americans

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (49) ◽  
pp. 12429-12434 ◽  
Author(s):  
Adam R. Pearson ◽  
Jonathon P. Schuldt ◽  
Rainer Romero-Canyas ◽  
Matthew T. Ballew ◽  
Dylan Larson-Konar
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Impacts ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Environmental Concerns ◽  
Racially Diverse ◽  
Cultural Stereotypes ◽  
Demographic Groups ◽  
Environmental Initiatives ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Us ◽  
Nationally Representative

In a nationally representative survey experiment, diverse segments of the US public underestimated the environmental concerns of nonwhite and low-income Americans and misperceived them as lower than those of white and more affluent Americans. Moreover, both whites and nonwhites and higher- and lower-income respondents associated the term “environmentalist” with whites and the well-educated, suggesting that shared cultural stereotypes may drive these misperceptions. This environmental belief paradox—a tendency to misperceive groups that are among the most environmentally concerned and most vulnerable to a wide range of environmental impacts as least concerned about the environment—was largely invariant across demographic groups and also extended to the specific issue of climate change. Suggesting these beliefs are malleable, exposure to images of a racially diverse (vs. nondiverse) environmental organization in an embedded randomized experiment reduced the perceived gap between whites’ and nonwhites’ environmental concerns and strengthened associations between nonwhites and the category “environmentalists” among minority respondents. These findings suggest that stereotypes about others’ environmental attitudes may pose a barrier to broadening public engagement with environmental initiatives, particularly among populations most vulnerable to negative environmental impacts.

The Role and Impact of Fox News

The Forum ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 367-388
Author(s):  
Jennifer Hoewe ◽  
Kathryn Cramer Brownell ◽  
Eric C. Wiemer
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United States ◽  
Cognitive Processing ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
Primary Source ◽  
The United States ◽  
Cable News ◽  
Fox News ◽  
Nationally Representative

Abstract Considering that cable news has become a primary source of political information for many Americans, this article examines the role and impact of Fox News in the United States, particularly as it compares to other news outlets. We begin by offering a historical analysis of Fox News’ formation and growth in popularity, including a review of existing scholarship on the network’s impact on news consumers. Prior research as well as an additional nationally-representative dataset reveals that two policy areas are particularly potent among Fox News’ consumers: immigration and climate change. Additionally, scholars have found initial evidence for the role of Fox News in shaping its viewers’ responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. We then consider the cognitive processing utilized by news consumers, explaining how it may differ among individuals who opt to consume Fox News and those who get news from other sources. We conclude by reviewing why three specific areas—immigration, climate change, and COVID-19—resonate so strongly with Fox News consumers.

scholarly journals The influence of climate change on the spread of human salmonellosis (Mini-review)

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekaterina Shmeleva
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Driving Forces ◽  
Extreme Weather Events ◽  
Complex Phenomenon ◽  
Important Food ◽  
Weather Events ◽  
Food Borne ◽  
Human Salmonellosis

Human salmonellosis is one of the most important food-borne diseases, which is caused by the serovars of Salmonella enterica. The mesophilic and hydrophilic bacteria, Salmonella serovars are expected to spread and cause an increased number of cases as a result of climate change. The interdependence of human salmonellosis and climate change is a complex phenomenon. Therefore, it needs a multidisciplinary method of analysis. Especially in low-income regions, both extreme weather events and diseases and their coexistence cause real disasters to the poorest communities. This review gathers the epidemiological and socioeconomic aspects of human salmonellosis to assess the main driving forces of infection. As a result, it was ascertained that the application of different disciplines helped to appreciate the important role of poverty in the epidemiology of human salmonellosis.

scholarly journals Does Knowledge about Climate Change Predict  Concern?  Concern for Climate Change and the Knowledge-Deficit Theory

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Alana Cornforth
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Snowball Sampling ◽  
Perceived Knowledge ◽  
Actual Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Deficit ◽  
Group Outcomes ◽  
High Concern ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Deficit Theory ◽  
New Zealanders

<p>The knowledge-deficit theory suggests that if people are not concerned about climate change, it is because there is a deficit in their knowledge of climate change—they do not properly comprehend the scientific consensus. So do people with higher levels of knowledge about climate change feel more concerned than those with lower knowledge levels? Existing research has been inconclusive but suggests differences between perceived and actual knowledge. This thesis comprises two studies. Study 1 tests the effect of perceived knowledge on concern for climate change with a nationally representative, randomly selected sample of 269 New Zealanders. Study 2 tests the effect of actual knowledge about climate change on concern with a sample of 452 New Zealanders recruited via snowball sampling. Results supported the knowledge-deficit theory for concern for climate change, but only when actual knowledge was tested. Participants in both Study 1 and Study 2 with high perceived knowledge did not have correspondingly high levels of concern, but Study 2 participants with high actual knowledge of climate change did also have high levels of concern. Other variables tested that consistently predicted high concern for climate change were perceived efficacy (the perception that one's actions will influence group outcomes) and environmental values. Demographic variables were not strong or consistent predictors of concern, but overall, younger female participants tended to display higher levels of concern than older male participants.</p>

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