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Experimental effects of climate messages vary geographically

Abstract

Social science scholars routinely evaluate the efficacy of diverse climate frames using local convenience or nationally representative samples1,2,3,4,5. For example, previous research has focused on communicating the scientific consensus on climate change, which has been identified as a ‘gateway’ cognition to other key beliefs about the issue6,7,8,9. Importantly, although these efforts reveal average public responsiveness to particular climate frames, they do not describe variation in message effectiveness at the spatial and political scales relevant for climate policymaking. Here we use a small-area estimation method to map geographical variation in public responsiveness to information about the scientific consensus as part of a large-scale randomized national experiment (n = 6,301). Our survey experiment finds that, on average, public perception of the consensus increases by 16 percentage points after message exposure. However, substantial spatial variation exists across the United States at state and local scales. Crucially, responsiveness is highest in more conservative parts of the country, leading to national convergence in perceptions of the climate science consensus across diverse political geographies. These findings not only advance a geographical understanding of how the public engages with information about scientific agreement, but will also prove useful for policymakers, practitioners and scientists engaged in climate change mitigation and adaptation.

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Fig. 1: Experimental treatment effect sizes for each US state.
Fig. 2: The change in belief in the scientific consensus on climate change.
Fig. 3: Experimental treatment effect ordered by pre-treatment estimates of beliefs in the scientific consensus.
Fig. 4: Experimental treatment effect sizes for each US congressional district.

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Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Contributions

B.Z., M.M., P.D.H. and J.R.M. developed and implemented the model. S.v.d.L. and A.L. collected the data and designed the national experiment and survey with input from all authors. B.Z., S.v.d.L. and M.M. drafted a first version of the manuscript. P.D.H., J.R.M. and A.L. all provided critical input to the writing and results and approved the final version of the manuscript.

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Correspondence to Baobao Zhang.

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Supplementary Information

Supplementary Tables 1–3, Supplementary Figures 1–7 and Supplementary References

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Zhang, B., van der Linden, S., Mildenberger, M. et al. Experimental effects of climate messages vary geographically. Nature Clim Change 8, 370–374 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41558-018-0122-0

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