Publicly expressed climate scepticism is greatest in regions with high CO2 emissions

Samuel Pearson (), Matthew J. Hornsey, Saphira Rekker, Belinda Wade and Chris Greig
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Samuel Pearson: University of Queensland
Matthew J. Hornsey: University of Queensland
Saphira Rekker: University of Queensland
Belinda Wade: University of Queensland
Chris Greig: Princeton University

Climatic Change, 2024, vol. 177, issue 5, No 8, 16 pages

Abstract: Abstract We analysed a recently released corpus of climate-related tweets to examine the macro-level factors associated with public declarations of climate change scepticism. Analyses of over 2 million geo-located tweets in the U.S. showed that climate scepticism – and the aggressiveness of climate-related tweets – was greater in states with higher per capita carbon emissions. This pattern remained significant after controlling for political conservatism, GDP per capita, education, and gender, and was replicated across 126 nations from around the world. The findings are consistent with a vested interest hypothesis—misinformation around climate change is most likely to be distributed in regions where there is high fossil fuel reliance, and where the economic stakes of acknowledging climate change are high. Understanding the macro-level patterns that are implicated in climate scepticism can help inform structural interventions for those seeking a low-carbon future.

Keywords: Climate scepticism; Twitter; Vested interests; Motivated reasoning (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1007/s10584-024-03740-3

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