Credentialed Contrarians: The Misrepresentation of Climate Change Expertise in Congress

Does partisan politics distort the representation of climate change expertise in U.S. policymaking? To examine this question, we classify each Congressional witness who testified on climate change between 1997 and 2016 in terms of both their expert credentials and their climate change beliefs. In contrast to prevailing wisdom, we find that Republicans are slightly more likely to call credentialed experts than Democrats. However, this pattern is largely driven by the presence of credentialed contrarians, i.e., experts who have contradicted widely accepted conclusions of their own community. Although these individuals represent less than one percent of climate change experts outside of Congress, they account for over a quarter of expert testimonies in Congress. More generally, these findings illustrate how politicians at odds with the expert community can strategically and repeatedly select the small minority of individuals who both lend credibility to their political views and meet shared standards of professionalized expertise.

What are the Determinants of Public Support for Climate Policies? A Review of the Empirical Literature

Climate change is one of the most challenging problems of our times. To be effective, climate policies need to receive citizens’ approval. The objective of this article is to examine both the extent of individuals’ support for different climate policies and key determinants of policy support. To this end, an overview of the related empirical literature is provided. The article shows that the empirical literature on public climate policy support is very diverse in terms of concepts, measures of policy support and empirical approaches. Moreover, the bulk of the existing empirical literature has a strong U.S. focus. The article concludes that public support for climate policies is rather a matter of climate change beliefs and party identification, and not primarily a question of socio-demographic background. The article also offers suggestions for future research as well as policy recommendations.

Four Europes: Climate change beliefs and attitudes predict behavior and policy preferences using a latent class analysis on 23 countries

Building public will for climate action requires designing messages for different audiences. Previous studies that identified groups based on similar beliefs, behavior, and political preferences related to climate change were in single countries and were not pre-registered. The current study ran latent class analysis on the European Social Survey (ESS 2016, N= 44,387) to identify groups of people according to their climate change attitudes and beliefs in 22 European countries and Israel. We found strong evidence for four groups: Engaged (18%), Conflicted (18%), Indifferent (42%), and Skeptical (21%) and we compare the segment structure and proportions within Europe and to other countries. We identify differences between the groups in values, life satisfaction, and social trust, and then revealed that the groups uniquely predict self-reported behaviors not included in the segmentation. The findings characterize climate change beliefs for all of Europe and guide governments and pan-European bodies in designingeffective communications to promote climate beliefs and actions.

Do Psychedelics Change Beliefs?

Renewed interest in psychedelics has reignited the debate about whether and how they change human beliefs. In both the clinical and social-cognitive domains, psychedelic consumption may be accompanied by profound, and sometimes lasting, belief changes. We review these changes and their possible underlying mechanisms. Rather than inducing de novo beliefs, we argue psychedelics may instead change the impact of affect and of others’ suggestions on how beliefs are imputed. Critically, we find that baseline beliefs (in the possible effects of psychedelics, for example) might color the acute effects of psychedelics as well as longer term changes. If we are to harness the apparent potential of psychedelics in the clinic and for human flourishing more generally, these possibilities must be addressed empirically.

Some Approaches in Online Misinformation Analysis

The complex nature of the ‘infodemic’ problem requires a combination of different approaches to analysing online information disorder. Approaches which emphasize analytical and critical thinking are important but have shortcomings. Fact-checking as a misinformation prevention strategy also has limitations. Certain types of misinformation disorder are complex and providing ‘facts’ alone may not change beliefs in adherents, particularly when deeply-held beliefs are involved. Sometimes the opposite effect of strengthening the false belief occurs. This has led to the strategy of trying to prevent or neutralize misinformation through ‘inoculation’ or ‘prebunking’ . Prebunking or inoculation involves exposing the flawed argumentation techniques of misinformation to prepare online content consumers against future misinformation. For analysing complex phenomena like conspiracy theories a ‘systems’ approach is more effective to reveal root causes of information disorder, provide actionable insight and long-term solutions.

Perceptions and correspondence of climate change beliefs and behavior among romantic couples

Romantic partners influence one another’s beliefs and behaviors. However, little is known about the dynamics of climate change beliefs and behaviors within romantic couples. We surveyed 758 romantic couples (N = 1,516 individuals) to investigate (a) correspondence between partners’ climate change beliefs and behaviors, (b) accuracy of people’s perceptions of their partner’s beliefs and behaviors, (c) how accuracy varies across moderating variables such as frequency of global warming discussion, and (d) whether partner perceptions are more strongly predicted by their partner’s actual beliefs and behaviors or by projections of their own beliefs and behaviors. Results indicate beliefs and behaviors commonly differ between romantic partners. Moreover, people’s perceptions of their partner’s beliefs and behaviors are predicted by their own beliefs and behaviors (assumed similarity), separate from the predictive effect of their partner’s actual beliefs and behaviors (accuracy). We use these findings to identify opportunities for future research on relationship-based interventions.

Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages

Accumulating evidence indicates that climate change awareness and concern has increased globally, but commentators suggest a climate change generation gap whereby younger people care more about climate change than older people. Here we use a decade of panel data from 56,513 New Zealanders to test whether belief that “Climate change is real” and “Climate change is caused by humans” increased over the 2009-2018 period; and whether changes are uniform across 12 five-year birth cohorts spanning those born from 1936 to 1995. Results confirm a generation gap in mean (intercept) climate change beliefs but not in over-time increase (slope). The generation gap occurs because older cohorts started from a lower initial belief level (circa 2009), but all age cohorts increased their belief level at a similar rate over the last decade; and these results were not qualified by respondents’ gender. The findings offer hope for collective action that bridges efforts across generations.

Uncertainty in the “New Normal”: Understanding the Role of Climate Change Beliefs and Risk Perceptions in Michigan Tree Fruit Growers’ Adaptation Behaviors

In the midwestern United States, intensifying impacts from climate change necessitate adaptation by the agricultural sector. Tree fruit agriculture is uniquely vulnerable to climate change due to the long-lived nature of perennial systems, yet very few studies have addressed how fruit growers perceive climate change and are responding to climate risks. For this study, 16 semistructured interviews were conducted with Michigan tree fruit growers to understand how their climate change beliefs, beliefs about adaptive actions, and climate-related risk perceptions influence adaptation behaviors. While there was a great deal of uncertainty about the anthropogenic nature of climate change, growers generally agreed that unprecedented changes in climate and weather patterns were occurring. Because of a perception of little control over future climate impacts, most growers reactively adapted to climate risks that negatively impacted their orchards by implementing measures such as frost protection, irrigation, pesticides, and crop insurance. This study highlighted that while proactive adaptations such as crop diversification, planting new varieties, and improving soil health will be necessary to increase farm resilience in the future, growers were unable to justify making these changes due to their uncertainty about future climate changes. The findings from this study highlight the need for future outreach efforts by university extension agents, private agricultural advisors, and federal and state agency advisors to provide educational information on the long-term impacts of climate change in order to help growers increase the resilience of their farm in the face of future climate impacts.