Confidence in Local, National, and International Scientists on Climate Change

Aaron C. Sparks, Heather Hodges, Sarah Oliver and Eric R. A. N. Smith
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Aaron C. Sparks: Department of Political Science and Policy Studies, Elon University, Elon, NC 27244, USA
Heather Hodges: Bren School of Environmental Science and Management, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA
Sarah Oliver: Department of Political Science, Towson University, Towson, MD 21252, USA
Eric R. A. N. Smith: Department of Political Science, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, USA

Sustainability, 2020, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: In many public policy areas, such as climate change, news media reports about scientific research play an important role. In presenting their research, scientists are providing guidance to the public regarding public policy choices. How do people decide which scientists and scientific claims to believe? This is a question we address by drawing on the psychology of persuasion. We propose the hypothesis that people are more likely to believe local scientists than national or international scientists. We test this hypothesis with an experiment embedded in a national Internet survey. Our experiment yielded null findings, showing that people do not discount or ignore research findings on climate change if they come from Europe instead of Washington-based scientists or a leading university in a respondent’s home state. This reinforces evidence that climate change beliefs are relatively stable, based on party affiliation, and not malleable based on the source of the scientific report.

Keywords: climate change; public opinion; confidence in science; persuasion (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
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