The Influence of Global Warming Science Views and Sociocultural Factors on Willingness to Mitigate Global Warming

Abstract

The science education field readily recognizes that perceptions about science's claims and nature influence socioscientific decision making. However, sociocultural factors may overshadow these perceptions when people are forced to make personally impacting choices contextualized within actual socioscientific issues. This investigation determined 324 secondary students' perceptions about global warming (GW) science and willingness to mitigate GW across five categories of actions—each requiring varying levels of personal sacrifice (e.g., supporting GW education versus limiting personal reproduction). Identified sociocultural indicators among the students included ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic classification. Results indicate that GW science views and sociocultural factors became less impactful on the participants' willingness to mitigate GW as the GW-mitigating actions required greater personal involvement and sacrifice. However, most consistently significantly predicting willingness to mitigate GW was the participants' perceptions about the validity of GW science claims. Furthermore, while the participants' perceptions about the nature of GW science methods significantly influenced their willingness to enact certain GW-mitigating actions, socioeconomic classification and ethnicity were oftentimes stronger indicators of the participants' inclination to mitigate GW. Implications for education discussed include promoting responsible socioscientific decision making through contextually teaching about how and why GW science is valid while also considering how sociocultural factors can impact socioscientific choices.