Department of Psychology, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Environmental Psychology, Department of Cognition, Emotion and Methods in Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria.
Nat Hum Behav. 2024 Oct;8(10):1892-1905. doi: 10.1038/s41562-024-01928-2. Epub 2024 Aug 26.
Communicating the scientific consensus that human-caused climate change is real increases climate change beliefs, worry and support for public action in the United States. In this preregistered experiment, we tested two scientific consensus messages, a classic message on the reality of human-caused climate change and an updated message additionally emphasizing scientific agreement that climate change is a crisis. Across online convenience samples from 27 countries (n = 10,527), the classic message substantially reduces misperceptions (d = 0.47, 95% CI (0.41, 0.52)) and slightly increases climate change beliefs (from d = 0.06, 95% CI (0.01, 0.11) to d = 0.10, 95% CI (0.04, 0.15)) and worry (d = 0.05, 95% CI (-0.01, 0.10)) but not support for public action directly. The updated message is equally effective but provides no added value. Both messages are more effective for audiences with lower message familiarity and higher misperceptions, including those with lower trust in climate scientists and right-leaning ideologies. Overall, scientific consensus messaging is an effective, non-polarizing tool for changing misperceptions, beliefs and worry across different audiences.
传达人为引起的气候变化是真实存在的这一科学共识，可以提高美国人对气候变化的信任，增加对公众采取行动的担忧和支持。在这项预先注册的实验中，我们测试了两条科学共识信息，一条是关于人为引起的气候变化的现实的经典信息，另一条则是另外强调气候变化是一场危机的科学共识信息。通过来自 27 个国家的在线便利样本（n=10527），经典信息大大减少了误解（d=0.47，95%置信区间（0.41，0.52）），略微增加了对气候变化的信仰（从 d=0.06，95%置信区间（0.01，0.11）到 d=0.10，95%置信区间（0.04，0.15））和担忧（d=0.05，95%置信区间（-0.01，0.10）），但不会直接增加对公众行动的支持。更新后的信息同样有效，但没有增加价值。对于那些对信息熟悉程度较低、误解较多的受众，包括对气候科学家和右翼意识形态信任度较低的受众，这两条信息都更有效。总的来说，科学共识信息是一种有效的、非极化的工具，可以改变不同受众对误解、信仰和担忧的看法。
