Knowledge as a driver of climate change concern
A recent US survey suggested that, in shaping our attitude toward climate change, values are more important than our understanding of the issue. We reassessed this counterintuitive finding and showed that knowledge is indeed a driver of climate change concern, thus supporting the need to inform the public.
Those of us following the US presidential primaries no doubt see Donald Trump as a stereotypical example of an individualistic, egocentric and not particularly altruistic person. He has commented that climate change is a hoax and that “Any and all weather events are used by the global warming hoaxers [emphasis removed] to justify higher taxes to save our planet!...” [1]. Based on the characteristics of prominent right-wing politicians, we could indeed theorize that our core values, such as egoism and altruism, strongly influence how we think about climate change and whether we are willing to adopt mitigation measures.
Values vs. knowledge
A survey conducted in the US [2] confirmed this impression: people with stronger hierarchical and individualistic values were less concerned about climate change whereas those with stronger egalitarian and communitarian values showed more concern. Moreover, the findings of this and other surveys showed that more scientific knowledge did not attenuate the relation between values and concern about climate change. Along with Michael Siegrist and Joseph Arvai, we found this a rather counterintuitive finding: surely people’s attitudes and beliefs are based on their knowledge, so that, independently of the effects of values, having more adequate knowledge about climate change should be related to being more concerned about it.
How to measure climate knowledge
We believed that this counterintuitive finding was due to the way knowledge was measured in previous studies. Knowledge is often investigated by simply asking study participants to estimate and report their level of knowledge. Such a self-report measure can easily be biased, for example, by mood or self-esteem, and is therefore not a very valid instrument. Moreover, as climate change depends on a number of factors, it is important to measure the various knowledge domains relevant to understanding the risk of climate change, such as its physical characteristics, causes and consequences. Lastly, one could argue that the sole impact of values on climate change concern was a typical US finding, and that in other countries or cultures, knowledge will affect climate change concern. In short, we decided to survey the relation of concern about climate change with three core values: egoism, altruism and biospherism (esteem for the environment and the human being within nature), and with three knowledge dimensions in six different countries: Canada, China, Germany, Switzerland, the UK and the US [3].
Our findings confirmed our expectations: when measured in an objective and multidimensional way, knowledge is indeed an important driver of climate change concern in all six countries. This is especially the case for knowledge about the causes and impacts of climate change. Moreover, egoistic and altruistic values appeared to be of little importance, indicating that more knowledge about climate change increases people’s worries about it, independent of their worldviews.
Clear information is key
The results show the need to provide the public with adequate and understandable information about climate change. This is particularly important because various studies have shown that concern is a central factor—although not the only one—in an individual’s willingness to adopt climate-friendly behaviour or to support climate-friendly policy measures [e.g. 4].
You will however agree that it is naive to believe that Donald Trump just needs to be better educated about global warming in order to change his political ideas in favour of climate-friendlier policies. Support for such measures also depends on the benefits and costs that people associate with them. Nevertheless, initiatives that aim to develop and communicate information about the causes and consequences of global warming to the public are essential. They will increase awareness and understanding of climate change, which is a starting point for encouraging climate-friendly behaviour.
Vivianne Visschers wrote this blog post together with Jing Shi, doctoral student at the Consumer Behaviour group, ETH Zurich.
Further information
[1] Donald Trump on Twitter, January 26, 2014.
[2] Kahan, D.M., Peters, E., Wittlin, M., Slovic, P., Ouellette, L.L., Braman, D., and Mandel, G. (2012), The polarizing impact of science literacy and numeracy on perceived climate change risks. Nature Climate Change, 2, p. 732-735, DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1547.
[3] Shi, J., Visschers, V.H.M., Siegrist, M., and Arvai, J. (in press), Knowledge as a driver of public perceptions about climate change reassessed. Nature Climate Change, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2997
[4] Shi, J., Visschers, V.H.M., and Siegrist, M. (2015), Public perception of climate change: The importance of knowledge and cultural worldviews. Risk Analysis, 35, p. 2183-2201, DOI: 10.1111/risa.12406.
