Confidence in Local, National, and International Scientists on Climate Change

Aaron C Sparks,Eric R A N Smith,Heather Hodges,Sarah Oliver

doi:10.3390/su13010272

Aaron C Sparks, Eric R A N Smith + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/su13010272

Copy DOI

Abstract

In many public policy areas, such as climate change, news media reports about scientific research play an important role. In presenting their research, scientists are providing guidance to the public regarding public policy choices. How do people decide which scientists and scientific claims to believe? This is a question we address by drawing on the psychology of persuasion. We propose the hypothesis that people are more likely to believe local scientists than national or international scientists. We test this hypothesis with an experiment embedded in a national Internet survey. Our experiment yielded null findings, showing that people do not discount or ignore research findings on climate change if they come from Europe instead of Washington-based scientists or a leading university in a respondent’s home state. This reinforces evidence that climate change beliefs are relatively stable, based on party affiliation, and not malleable based on the source of the scientific report.

Highlights

Scientists on Climate Change.Most scientists agree that the earth is warming, and that human activity has caused most of the increase in temperature [1]
This research focuses on the messages sent from climate change scientists as attempts at persuasion
Embedded in a 2014 public opinion survey of Americans, we examine how people respond to eight examples of climate change news reports based on whether the source of the research is from a local, Washington-based, or European university

Summary

Introduction

Scientists on Climate Change.Most scientists agree that the earth is warming, and that human activity has caused most of the increase in temperature [1]. In the case of climate change, how do people decide which scientists and which scientific evidence to believe?. Studies in psychology and political science provide several approaches to understanding why people accept or reject claims about climate change [4,5,6]. This research focuses on the messages sent from climate change scientists as attempts at persuasion. We test the hypothesis that people have more confidence in news media reports of climate change research when the scientists are from local universities than when they are from distant or even foreign universities. Embedded in a 2014 public opinion survey of Americans, we examine how people respond to eight examples of climate change news reports based on whether the source of the research is from a local, Washington-based, or European university

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion