The DOI matches its Crossref record; 45 of the 45 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Where Does Political Polarization Come From? Locating Polarization Within the U.S. Climate Change Debate
Open accessAbstract
How do we understand political polarization within the U.S. climate change debate? This article unpacks the different components of the debate to determine the source of the political divide that is so noted in the mainstream media and academic literatures. Through analysis of the content of congressional hearings on the issue of climate change, we are able to explain political polarization of the issue more fully. In particular, our results show that, contrary to representations in the mainstream media, there is increasing consensus over the science of the issue. Discussions of the type of policy instrument and the economic implications of regulating carbon dioxide emissions, however, continue to polarize opinion. This article concludes by exploring how these findings help us understand more recent political events around climate change.
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“Qualitative analysis further showed that in rare instances of intergroup communication, more negative frames tended to prevail, featuring dismissal of climate change information as hoaxes, derailment of conversations to heated issues of identity, as well as overall higher levels of sarcasm and incivility [8], [17], [18].”
From Affective Polarization in Online Climate Change Discourse on Twitter (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
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“Relying consistently on manually annotated corpora and datasets of limited size, existing scholarship has faced barriers to measuring the emotional component of climate change discussions in a generalizable fashion [8], [17], [18].”
From Affective Polarization in Online Climate Change Discourse on Twitter (2020) · cites this paper as [18]
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Citations
Cites
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Items 201–208 of 208
When Scientists Speak Up: Trustworthiness in Advocacy Contexts
Hubner, A. Y. (2025) · Environmental Communication · doi:10.1080/17524032.2025.2597443
A Graph Neural Network-Based Method for Detecting Malicious Behavior in Containers
Lin, N., Wu, L., Liu, Y., Xu, L., Lin, Z., & Jiang, Z. (2025) · International Conference on Computer Communication and Artificial Intelligence (CCAI) · doi:10.1109/ccai65422.2025.11189848
Kwon, Y. G., Jeong, D., Kim, M. K., & Kim, M. K. (2026) · Asian Nursing Research · doi:10.1016/j.anr.2026.04.001
Power and inclusion in REDD+ policy networks in the Democratic Republic of Congo
Kengoum, F., Gregorio, M. D., Mihigo, B.-P. N., & Brockhaus, M. (2026) · Forest Policy and Economics · doi:10.1016/j.forpol.2026.103846
Discursive Polarization of Brazil, China, India and South Africa Think Tanks Regarding G20 and BRICS
Voitov, S. (2026) · Analysis and Forecasting IMEMO Journal · doi:10.20542/afij-2026-1-70-82
Muzzerall, P., Hamdon, C., & McConnell, K. (2026) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/9780197852729.003.0063
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Bryant, J. C. (2026) · Environmental Politics · doi:10.1080/09644016.2026.2701573
Metadata
- Authors
- Fisher, D. R., Waggle, J., & Leifeld, P.
- Affiliations
- University of Maryland, College Park (US)
- Max Planck Society (DE)
- Venue
- American Behavioral Scientist
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2012-11-02
- Volume
- 57
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 70-92
- ISSN
- 0002-7642 (ISSN-L)
- 1552-3381
- OpenAlex
- W2018045098
- Cited by
- 211
- References
- 45
- Citations by year
- 2026: 10 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 23 · 2023: 16 · 2022: 8 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 39 · 2019: 14 · 2018: 14 · 2017: 7 · 2016: 13 · 2015: 14 · 2014: 8 · 2013: 2
- FWCI
- 25.32
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- www.dora.lib4ri.ch
- Locations
- American Behavioral Scientist (publishedVersion)
- ENLIGHTEN (Jurnal Bimbingan dan Konseling Islam) (acceptedVersion)
- DORA Eawag (Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag)) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Max Planck Digital Library (submittedVersion)
- MPG.PuRe (Max Planck Society) (submittedVersion)
- Funders
- National Science Foundation (0826892)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Social Sciences › Economics, Econometrics and Finance › Economics and Econometrics › Climate Change Policy and Economics
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Electoral Systems and Political Participation
- Keywords
- political polarization, climate change debate, congressional hearings, policy instruments, mainstream media coverage, United States climate policy
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