A 27-country test of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change.
Većkalov, Bojana; Geiger, Sandra J; Bartoš, František; White, Mathew P; Rutjens, Bastiaan T; van Harreveld, Frenk; Stablum, Federica; Akın, Berkan; Aldoh, Alaa; Bai, Jinhao; Berglund, Frida; Bratina Zimic, Aleša; Broyles, Margaret; Catania, Andrea; Chen, Airu; Chorzępa, Magdalena; Farahat, Eman; Götz, Jakob; Hoter-Ishay, Bat; Jordan, Gesine; Joustra, Siri; Klingebiel, Jonas; Krajnc, Živa; Krug, Antonia; Andersen, Thomas Lind; Löloff, Johanna; Natarajan, Divya; Newman-Oktan, Sasha; Niehoff, Elena; Paerels, Celeste; Papirmeister, Rachel; Peregrina, Steven; Pohl, Felicia; Remsö, Amanda; Roh, Abigail; Rusyidi, Binahayati; Schmidt, Justus; Shavgulidze, Mariam; Vellinho Nardin, Valentina; Wang, Ruixiang; Warner, Kelly; Wattier, Miranda; Wong, Chloe Y; Younssi, Mariem; Ruggeri, Kai; van der Linden, Sander
Series / Report no.
Open Access
Type
Article
Language
en
Date
2024-08-26
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Title
A 27-country test of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change.
Translated Title
Published in
Nat Hum Behav 2024; 8(10):1892-1905
Abstract
Communicating the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is real increases climate change beliefs, worry and support for public action in the United States. In this preregistered experiment, we tested two scientific consensus messages, a classic message on the reality of human-caused climate change and an updated message additionally emphasizing scientific agreement that climate change is a crisis. Across online convenience samples from 27 countries (n = 10,527), the classic message substantially reduces misperceptions (d = 0.47, 95% CI (0.41, 0.52)) and slightly increases climate change beliefs (from d = 0.06, 95% CI (0.01, 0.11) to d = 0.10, 95% CI (0.04, 0.15)) and worry (d = 0.05, 95% CI (-0.01, 0.10)) but not support for public action directly. The updated message is equally effective but provides no added value. Both messages are more effective for audiences with lower message familiarity and higher misperceptions, including those with lower trust in climate scientists and right-leaning ideologies. Overall, scientific consensus messaging is an effective, non-polarizing tool for changing misperceptions, beliefs and worry across different audiences.