Shaping Climate Change Beliefs: Messaging and Measurement

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

How can climate change messaging induce concern and action? Beliefs and preferences about climate change – particularly in partisan environments – tend to be resistant to change (Druckman and McGrath 2019). Much research focuses on shaping beliefs via presentation and framing of scientific facts (e.g., Van der Linden et al. 2015) or by altering the “psychological distance” of the effects of climate change (e.g., Spence et al. 2012). The papers in this panel probe the limitations of these broad literatures along three primary lines. First, we consider how different kinds of climate change messaging travel across different contexts -- from the wealthy contexts where such research usually takes place to the low- and middle-income countries that will bear the brunt of climate change in the future. Second, these papers consider alternative mechanisms for inducing belief change, including emotional appeals, keyhole issues, and the use of fiction for perspective-getting. Third, we extend existing work by using innovative measurement strategies to capture climate change concern and information-seeking. The panel includes both working papers and research designs.

Sub Unit

• Division 39: Science, Technology, and Environmental Politics

Cosponsor

• Division 38: Political Communication

Individual Presentations

• Mobilization with Issue- and Identity-Specific Messages - Parrish Bergquist, University of Pennsylvania

• Climate Attribution, Beliefs, & Actions: Wildfires in the American West - Alicia Dailey Cooperman, George Washington University; Sara Constantino, Northeastern University; Alexander Sayer Gard-Murray, Brown University; Talbot M Andrews, Cornell University

• Can Fiction Make the Climate Crisis Real? - Melina Raquel Platas Izama, NYU Abu Dhabi; Andy Andrew Harris, New York University Abu Dhabi

Chair

• Melina Raquel Platas Izama NYU Abu Dhabi

Discussants

• Andy Andrew Harris New York University Abu Dhabi

• Alexander Foster Gazmararian University of Michigan