communicating about climate change
TRANSCRIPT
http://hde.osu.edu/
Dr. Erik C. Nisbet
School Communication
Department of Political Science
The Ohio State University
Communicating About Climate
Change
Today’s Agenda
• Trends and explanations for public opinion about climate change
• Emerging strategies for communicating about climate change
Is Climate Change Happening?
But are we the cause???
In Sum• Belief that CG is happening has rebounded
• Presently 2/3 of Americans believe CG is occurring but divided about▫ Whether humans are the cause▫ The amount of scientific consensus about the
cause
• Most Americans also…▫ Do not believe it is an immediate threat▫ Do not believe it will impact them personally▫ Rank it low compared to other environmental
concerns
Possible Explanations for Opinion
• Economic Trends
• Media Coverage of Climate Change
• Knowledge
• Ideology/Values
Low media attention – driven by events
Excerpted from American University Climate Shift Report, 2011
Though that may be evolving…
Role of Knowledge
• Classic explanation for public opinion about science issues is the “scientific deficit” model▫ Assumes increasing citizen knowledge will lead
the public to adopt policy attitudes in line with scientific consensus
▫ Works with a small percentage (10-15%) of the public
▫ Ignores the complexity of opinion formation
Knowledge of Climate Change
Based on Answers to 81 Factual Questions from 2,030 Adults
Excerpted from Yale Project on Climate Change Communication, 2010
Cognitive Misers
• Most people lack a) motivation and b) ability to systematically and deliberatively process large amounts of information about a complex issue or topic
• Instead, we employ a range of heuristics, mental shortcuts, to make decisions about complex issues, ex. Ideology, Trust
Motivated Reasoning
• We “work backward” from our strongly held pre-existing beliefs and values to reduce affective and emotional distress – reason effused with emotion
• Values and ideology act as “perceptual screens” through processes such as…
▫ Selective Exposure, Attention, Recall
▫ Counter-arguing
▫ Source Degradation
Knowledge and Ideology
Binomial Logistic Regression; controlling for education, age, income, race, gender, ideology, political interest, television
exposure, newspaper exposure, knowledge, attention to political news, attention to science and environmental news; Model explains
29.7% of Pseudo R-square (Nagelkerke)
Ideologically Driven Misperceptions• Liberal Misperceptions
▫ Hole in ozone layer is primary cause of global warming.
▫ Reducing fossil fuel reliance now would immediately decrease CO2 in atmosphere
▫ Earth's climate is warmest it has ever been
• Conservative Misperceptions▫ Record cold and snowstorms prove that global warming
is not happening
▫ Climate often changes from year to year.
▫ Great deal of disagreement among scientists about global warming happening or not.
Misperceptions increase as news attention increases
The Challenge of Ideology
• Hart and Nisbet, 2012
▫ Participant read a brief news article about the potential health impacts of climate change on farmers
▫ Manipulated the perceived social distance of potential victims from participant (in-group vs. out-group)
▫ Tested whether political partisanship moderated perceived social distance
Boomerang Effect
• Democrats supported climate mitigation efforts regardless of which group featured
• Republicans in the out-group message became MORE opposed to climate mitigation than Republicans who received no message.
• Messaging activated ideology = increased opposition
Emerging Communication Approaches
• Framing▫ Aligning CG policies with ideology/values
▫ Reduce motivated reasoning with consensus issues like health
• Reducing Psychological Distance
• Focus on Climate Change Adaptation
Communicating Context and Values
• Framing as means of making sense of complex issues: “Perception is reference dependent”
• Framing is about creating and communicating interpretive packages that select or present a subset of considerations or attributes about a topic
• Frames influence opinions by suggesting or reinforcing specific problem definitions causal interpretations moral evaluations recommendations and solutions likely outcomes
Communication Strategy
• Recognize own ideological/value biases
• Identify Audience Segments
• Connect Communication to Values
• Reduce Motivated Reasoning
Matching Values & Message
• Yale/George Mason Experiment:
▫ Over 60% of Republicans and Republican-leaning independents supported action on climate change when presented value-consistent frames
Value Frames• “Free Market /Accountability”
▫ Our free-enterprise economy only works properly when individuals and companies are held accountable for harm that their actions cause to un-consenting people or the country as a whole. Companies that release heat-trapping pollution into the air should be accountable for those costs.“
• “Moral Purity”
▫ Carbon pollution is fouling our air and our water, and harming our health. We should take steps to maintain the purity of our air and water. As Benjamin Franklin said, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Framing CG Impacts
Global warming’s impact on our national security
Global warming’s impact on our health
Global warming’s impact on our environment
Health = Personal & Emotional
“We need to… convince the world that humanity
really is the most important species endangered by
climate change.”
—Margaret Chan, MD, Director-General, World
Health Organization
“Climate change is one of the most serious public
health threats facing our nation. Yet few
Americans are aware of the very real
consequences of climate change on the health of
our communities, our families and our children.”
—Georges Benjamin, MD,
Executive Director
American Public Health Association
Health Elicits Positive Response Among
Disengaged & Skeptics
Myers et. al., 2012 Climatic Change Letters
Communicate Local, NOT Global• Construal Level Theory
▫ People who think about a problem in abstract terms, compared to concrete terms, perceive less risk
• Perceived psychological distance influences construal level – the challenges:
• Among people who believe CG is happening they believe impacts will happen far away to other people
CG is Happening CG is not happening
Spatial Temporal
Social Hypothetical
Talking about climate adaptation
• Turn conversation to climate adaptation rather than mitigation:
▫ How can individuals and communities adapt to changing climate conditions at local level?
• Do not use the term “adaptation” – reduces urgency and is abstract/technical
• Sensitize people to possible local risks/impacts with focus on prevention, capacity-building, community resilience
Example Project• NSF Funded Project: How to address long-term
impacts of climate change on agricultural runoff in Maumee Watershed and health of Lake Erie
▫ Large focus on general public and stakeholder attitudes and behaviors
▫ Climate change will increase runoff due to Longer growing seasons Variable & Extreme weather events Overall greater precipitation
▫ Increased runoff = algal blooms in Lake Erie
▫ How can agricultural practices adapt to changing climate conditions in ways that reduce farm runoff and water pollution?
Some Online Resources
• http://climatechangecommunication.org
• http://climateshiftproject.org
• http://thebreakthrough.org
• http://www.pewresearch.org
• http://dotearth.blogs.nytimes.com