DO YOU CARE WHAT OTHERS LIKE YOU THINK? EXAMINING THE EFFECTS OF CORRECTING CLIMATE CHANGE PUBLIC OPINION MISPERCEPTIONS

Abstract

Climate change is a complex phenomenon requiring collective action, which begins with public awareness and support for government action. On first glance, public opinion about climate change in the U.S. is well-poised to spark public pressure for the introduction of wide-sweeping climate policies. Two-thirds of Americans are worried about climate change (Ballew et al., 2019; Leiserowitz et al., 2024), while a similar proportion supports more government climate action (Tyson & Kennedy, 2020). However, at the same time, Americans across parties and states underestimate the proportion of other Americans holding pro-climate attitudes, thus perceiving a false social reality. Polls and studies consistently document that Americans’ estimates of other Americans’ pro-climate attitudes are much lower than reality (Geiger & Swim, 2016; Leiserowitz et al., 2019; Mildenberger & Tingley, 2017; Pearson et al., 2018), with one study finding that people falsely perceive nearly two-thirds of Americans as against more government action on climate change (Sparkman et al., 2022).