Einstein, Roosevelt, and the atom bomb: lessons learned for scientists communicating climate change

Warner, Lucy

doi:10.1017/cbo9780511535871.013

Cited by 2 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 5 publications

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“…One recent study of the American public examined the relationship between climate change knowledge, concern, party affiliation, and varying degrees of trust in scientists as messengers, and found that trust in the messenger is a strong mediating influence on how people interpret the knowledge conveyed to them, i.e., whether they were more or less concerned even if they had the same amount of knowledge 172. The study also confirmed that people accept and trust messages more readily when conveyed by people with similar views (e.g., Republicans trusting Republican/conservative messengers; Democrats believing Democratic/liberal leaders; people of color finding messengers of the same racial background more credible; suburban women with children being more easily convinced by women in similar life situations; business leaders becoming persuaded by other business leaders) (e.g., Refs 128, 173, 174). The growing disparity between Republican/conservative and Democratic/liberal/ Independent views on global warming has been interpreted as at least partially influenced by the communication activism of former Democratic Vice President Al Gore 175–177…”

Section: Key Elements Of the Communication Processsupporting

confidence: 61%

Communicating climate change: history, challenges, process and future directions

Moser

2009

WIREs Climate Change

852

629

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Since anthropogenic climate change first emerged on the public agenda in the midto-late 1980s, public communication of climate change and-more recently-the question of how to communicate it most effectively have witnessed a steep rise. This paper synthesizes what is known, presumed, and still unknown about how to effectively communicate this problem. An introductory historical overview of climate change communication is followed by a discussion of the challenges that communicators face in trying to convey the issue (invisibility of causes, distant impacts, lack of immediacy and direct experience of the impacts, lack of gratification for taking mitigative actions, disbelief in human's global influence, complexity and uncertainty, inadequate signals indicating the need for change, perceptual limits and self-interest). The core of the paper focuses on key aspects of the communication process (purpose and scope of the communication, audience, framing, messages, messengers, modes and channels of communication, and assessing the outcomes and effectiveness of a communication). These elements are placed in relationship to several contextual factors that affect the communication process. The paper concludes with suggestions for future research on climate change communication. 

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Section: Key Elements Of the Communication Processsupporting

confidence: 61%

Communicating climate change: history, challenges, process and future directions

Moser

2009

WIREs Climate Change

852

629

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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Partisan Cueing and Polarization in Public Opinion About Climate Change

Guber¹

2017

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Climate Science

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Despite an accumulation of scientific evidence on both the causes and consequences of climate change, U.S. public opinion on the subject has splintered sharply along party lines. While a vast majority of Democrats now believe that global warming is real, that its effects will happen within their lifetime, and that human activity is the dominant cause, Republicans have grown increasingly skeptical, creating a yawning gap that complicates efforts to communicate the urgency of the problem and the need for aggressive action. When attitudes harden and diverge, it is often driven by the behavior of political elites, who shape the frames and mental models that people use to interpret events. Scholars have long observed that people resort instinctively to heuristics to ease the burden of making decisions, especially on issues like climate, where there is an obvious disconnect between scientific understanding and mass competence. Those cues, however, are often unreliable and prone to cognitive bias. When voters act upon signals provided by their preferred political party and by selective exposure to preferred media outlets, they may do so mechanically, with little regard for the accuracy of the evidence that they receive, or they may ignore and distort information in a way that reinforces preexisting assumptions. In the end, beliefs about climate change are as complex as the issue itself, which suggests that awareness of the problem and an understanding of its effects will not translate automatically—or even easily—into increased concern, issue salience, or policy preferences. The “pictures in our heads,” to borrow Walter Lippmann’s famous phrase, are shaped less by factual knowledge than by a variety of other factors more difficult to control—by personal experience and assorted real-world cues (such as the weather), but also by opinion leaders, media narratives, and political rhetoric, each of which provides a competing frame of reference with the power to filter and mislead. Because climate change has become so heavily laden with values and so absorbed into partisan identity, it will be nearly impossible to build social consensus through conventional means. Once a “hard” issue for all, which seemed to demand sophisticated calculation or technical expertise, it has now become an “easy” one for many, where the reactions that it prompts are familiar, stable, and symbolic, increasingly polarized, immune to rational argument, and vulnerable to manipulation by elites.

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Einstein, Roosevelt, and the atom bomb: lessons learned for scientists communicating climate change

Cited by 2 publications

References 5 publications

Communicating climate change: history, challenges, process and future directions

Communicating climate change: history, challenges, process and future directions

Partisan Cueing and Polarization in Public Opinion About Climate Change

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