Measuring outdoor recreationists' beliefs in climate change: Testing the Occurrence and Anthropogenic Causation Scale (OC-AN)

An Investigation Into the Attitudes of Key Tourism Providers Regarding ‘Carbon Neutral’ Tourism in County Clare, Ireland

“…All respondents answered that they 'agreed completely' with all of the statements (See Table 2), thus demonstrating they believe strongly that climate change exists, and that it is influenced by people's actions. These results show a greater belief among respondents than Brownlee and Verbos (2015) found in their own study in the USA where, whilst a large majority felt climate change was a reality, fewer considered human activity a causative factor. was observed, which has led to a significant growth in air travel.…”

“…As already noted, all respondents were asked preliminary questions about whether they believe climate change is happening, and whether they consider certain actions of mankind to contribute towards climate change. These questions were based on the work of Brownlee and Verbos (2015). All respondents answered that they 'agreed completely' with all of the statements (See Table 2), thus demonstrating they believe strongly that climate change exists, and that it is influenced by people's actions.…”

“…There is also a noticeable absence of this information in the Irish setting (See RQ 4). Brownlee and Verbos (2015) used a specially developed scale to measure beliefs in climate change and found that whilst the majority of respondents did believe in climate change, fewer of them believed this was influenced by mankind. Hares, et al (2010) found that when planning holidays many tourists did not consider climate change, and Buckley (2011) concluded that even if prices rise significantly, many environmentally knowledgeable people will continue with their current travel behaviours.…”

“…Prior to the interview each respondent signed a consent form. Using a 5-point Likert scale all interviews began with a brief, structured exploration of the respondents' beliefs regarding the existence of climate change, and whether they feel it has a human cause, using the model devised by Brownlee and Verbos (2015) for their research. Further to this, the respondents' views on the contribution of tourism to climate change were explored.…”

The Effect of a Goal-Framing Manipulation on Environmentalism

“…This included Liu and Sibley's [12] two related (r = .80) items measuring willingness to make sacrifices for the environment on a Likert scale from 1 (definitely no) to 7 (definitely yes). Climate change beliefs were measured using Brownlee and Verbos's [13] fourteen-item Occurrence and Anthropogenic Causations Scale (ɑ = .96), with responses from 1 (completely disagree) to 7 (completely agree). We adapted the scale to include "animal agriculture", as research shows that the animal agricultural sector is one of the largest contributors to anthropogenic climate change [14].…”