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Psychology

Fear and hope in climate messages

Scientists often expect fear of climate change and its impacts to motivate public support of climate policies. A study suggests that climate change deniers don't respond to this, but that positive appeals can change their views.

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Figure 1: Belief in human cause of global warming, by political ideology and self-reported understanding of global warming over the years 2001–2010.

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Correspondence to Paul C. Stern.

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Stern, P. Fear and hope in climate messages. Nature Clim Change 2, 572–573 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate1610

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