Republicans and Climate Change: An Audience Analysis of Predictors for Belief and Policy Preferences
Open accessAbstract
Climate change is increasingly polarized within American politics. Yet, political orientation and climate change views are not synonymous, and research identifying the characteristics of counter-normative groups — such as Republicans concerned about climate change — is key to communication strategies to encourage wider acceptance of science-based views about climate change across the political spectrum. The evidence presented here demonstrates that there are distinct and reliable predictors of which Republicans are more likely to believe that climate change is occurring and express support for mitigation policies. While some of these variables (such as religiosity) are relatively inaccessible to climate change communication campaigns, others (such as correctly understanding the scientific consensus that climate change is happening) should likely form the cornerstone of communication efforts. The current study provides strong guidance on where to begin, and where more research is needed to better understand these phenomena.
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A detailed analysis of Republicans' opinions on climate change revealed perceived consensus to be the strongest predictor of acceptance of climate science.
“This experimental result meshes well with a detailed analysis of Republicans' opinions on climate change, which similarly revealed perceived consensus to be the strongest predictor of acceptance of climate science [39].”
From The Role of Conspiracist Ideation and Worldviews in Predicting Rejection of Science (2013) · cites this paper as [39]
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- Authors
- Rolfe-Redding, J., Maibach, E. W., Feldman, L., & Leiserowitz, A.
- Affiliations
- George Mason University (US)
- Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (US)
- Yale University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Rolfe-Redding, Justin
- Venue
- SSRN Electronic Journal
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2012
- ISSN
- 1556-5068 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W1849106015
- Cited by
- 15
- References
- 68
- Citations by year
- 2021: 1 · 2020: 3 · 2018: 1 · 2017: 2 · 2016: 1 · 2015: 3 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 1 · 2012: 2
- Type
- posted content
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- doi.org
- Locations
- SSRN Electronic Journal (acceptedVersion)
- 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 › Sociology and Political Science › Risk Perception and Management
- Keywords
- climate change beliefs, Republicans, political polarization, climate change communication, religiosity, political orientation
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