Measuring Epistemic Weather Curiosity: Initial Development and Validation of an Individual Difference Questionnaire

Abstract

This paper addresses work at the intersection of meteorology and the psychology of curiosity andlearning (Bolton et al. 2020; Stewart et al. 2015, 2018). Specifically, we report on thedevelopment and validation of the first self-report measure of epistemic (i.e., information-based)weather curiosity. Two studies derived 11 items measuring general interest in learning aboutweather and curiosity for the science behind weather. Psychometric properties and implicationsof the scale for use by meteorologists, educators, and academic researchers are discussed.

Analogue Weather in a Digital World: On the Value of Integrating Both the Physical and the Technological in Day-to-day Experiences of Weather

“…We have explored the extent to which people sense and observe the weather, report being emotionally affected by the weather and seek information and knowledge about the weather Bolton et al, 2021;Stewart, 2009;Stewart et al, 2012). Weather salience encompasses the ways in which people find the weather to be psychologically significant.…”

Weather on the Brain I: A Theoretical View on Needs to Think About Weather

“…Furthermore, the inverse of the aforementioned aversive psychological and physical experiences is, of course, the experiencing of positive, non-severe and dangerous weather phenomena and nature elements. Just two examples are the occurrences of children and adults alike being fascinated with rainbows, cloud formations, and the like and wanting to know the science behind them, or being exposed to weather information and subsequently desiring to know more (Bolton et al, 2021), and childhood experiences of nature portending later nature connectedness in adulthood (e.g., Passmore et al, 2021;Richardson et al, 2019).…”

“…Anecdotally, media exposure-such as consistently watching The Weather Channel and local television weather, or watching weather-related and more general natural disaster movies and documentaries-may predict both meteorological biophilia and biophobia (Bacon, 2012;Bolton et al, 2021). In other words, while some people may arrive at a need for cognition about weather due to a positive association and interest through multimedia, the opposite may also be true.…”

“…For others, early developmental interest in and attention for weather may result as a fear response to combined general environmental and specific physical weather sensitivity, or as a response to early-life weather-trauma. Associative, experiential, or social-learning mechanisms (Coelho & Purkis, 2009), lived experiences of weather (which may or may not be severe and dangerous; Coleman et al, 2014), anxiety sensitivity (Watt & DiFrancescantonio, 2012), and perceptions of weather variability and uncertainty (Bolton et al, 2021) all may play a role in this attunement. Outcomes for such a person would include heightened alertness towards and fear for, and greater cognitive-behavioral avoidance of, weather.…”

“…Such a cognitive and perceptual mechanism is conceptually different from, but may involve, several interweaving individual difference traits. Two of these are weather salience (a NEED FOR COGNITION ABOUT WEATHER 4 broad psychological attention to the weather and climate of one's place; Stewart, 2009;Stewart et al, 2012) and epistemic, or informational, weather curiosity (Bolton et al, 2021).…”