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Breaking the climate change communication deadlock

Nature Climate Change volume 4, pages 743–745 (2014)Cite this article

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Climate change communication is trapped between the norms that govern scientific practice and the need to engage the public. Overcoming this tension requires new societal institutions where the science and politics of climate change can co-exist.

Over more than two decades, a substantial body of social science research has generated a range of well-supported findings with clear, practical implications for public engagement on climate change1. It is now well understood that effective climate change communication involves more than simply presenting the facts of climate science in a clearer or more concise way. The idea that members of the public suffer from a 'deficit' of knowledge (which science outreach campaigns can address) is insufficient to explain the gap between the social and the scientific consensus on climate change that appears to have emerged over the past 10 years — particularly in the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, despite extensive programmes of outreach and engagement in these countries2. Although the reasons for public scepticism about climate change are complex and multi-faceted3, a consistent finding is that deeply held values and views about the organization of society and political ideology4 are primary determinants. Strikingly, improved scientific literacy in an audience can actually amplify polarization between ideologically opposed groups5, rather than lead to consensus between them.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Adam Corner is at the School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK and the Climate Outreach and Information Network, The Old Music Hall, 106–108 Cowley Road, Oxford OX4 1JE,

    Adam Corner

  2. Christopher Groves is at the School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, 51a Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, UK,

    Christopher Groves

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  1. Adam Corner
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  2. Christopher Groves
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Correspondence to Adam Corner.

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Corner, A., Groves, C. Breaking the climate change communication deadlock. Nature Clim Change 4, 743–745 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1038/nclimate2348

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