Right-wing ideology reduces the effects of education on climate change beliefs in more developed countries

Gabriela Czarnek (), Małgorzata Kossowska and Paulina Szwed
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Gabriela Czarnek: Jagiellonian University, Institute of Psychology
Małgorzata Kossowska: Jagiellonian University, Institute of Psychology
Paulina Szwed: Jagiellonian University, Institute of Psychology

Nature Climate Change, 2021, vol. 11, issue 1, 9-13

Abstract: Abstract The effects of education on people’s climate change beliefs vary as a function of political ideology: for those on the political left, education is related to pro-climate change beliefs, whereas for those on the political right, these effects are weak or negative. This phenomenon has been examined mainly in the US, where climate change has become a highly politicized issue; however, climate change is less politicized in other contexts. Here we analyse the effects of education and political ideology across 64 countries and show that education has positive effects on pro-climate change beliefs at low and mid-levels of development. At higher levels of development, right-wing ideology attenuates (but does not reverse) the positive effects of education. These analyses extend previous findings by systematically investigating the between-country variation in the relationship between education, ideology and climate change beliefs. The current findings suggest that US-centric theories on the topic should not be generally applied to other contexts uncritically.

Date: 2021
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DOI: 10.1038/s41558-020-00930-6

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