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Eliminating the local warming effect

Nature Climate Change volume 5, pages 176–177 (2015)Cite this article

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To the Editor —

Perceived deviations in daily local temperatures can alter individuals' views on global warming1,2,3,4,5,6. Here, however, I use an experiment to show that prompting individuals to remember how the weather felt over the past year severs the relationship between perceptions of the daily temperature with estimates of last year's temperature deviations and eliminates the 'local warming effect'. The results demonstrate the limits of this effect and suggest ways to rhetorically counteract it.

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Acknowledgements

I thank Adam Howat, and Lisa Zaval for insightful advice.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Political Science and Institute for Policy Research, Northwestern University, Scott Hall, 601 University Place, Evanston, 60208, Illinois, USA

    James N. Druckman

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  1. James N. Druckman
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Correspondence to James N. Druckman.

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Druckman, J. Eliminating the local warming effect. Nature Clim Change 5, 176–177 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2536

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