For Me It Was When I Saw a Simple Chart: Former Climate Contrarians Recount What Changed Their Minds
Abstract
Efforts to advance climate policy in the US have been hindered by a sector of the public that is reluctant to accept the science of anthropogenic climate change. Climate educators, advocates, and policymakers seek to resolve this roadblock through educational efforts and strategic messaging, while social science research strives to understand the causes of resistance on climate change. A discussion on the social media platform, AskReddit, offered a surprising source of insight when a tantalizing question was posed, "Former climate deniers, what changed your mind?" Responses to the query offered a rare glimpse into the process of how people switched camps, outgrew their parents' values, had transformative experiences, or were worn down by mounting scientific evidence. The posts contained 66 examples of people who were initially uncertain or dismissive of climate change, but came to accept the mainstream science. The commenters provided insightful narratives describing the origins of their skeptical beliefs, the rationales for their changing opinions, and the events that caused them to reverse course. Analysis of the comments revealed the primary reasons that influenced people to change their minds. Those were: science and evidence (cited as a factor in 47% of the comments); stewardship for the Earth and concerns about pollution (29%); unusual weather events (21%); and the untrustworthiness of the messengers who claim that climate change is false (17%). Note that several commenters pointed to more than one factor that contributed to their evolving views. While neither the setting nor the sample size allow a robust scientific analysis, these anecdotal accounts offer useful insights on a vexing problem. Learning about the circumstances that lead people to update their thinking can help us improve efforts to communicate the science and policy around climate change. This work is the topic of an article at Yale Climate Connections, https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2017/04/changing-minds-on-a-changing-climate/.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2017
- Bibcode:
- 2017AGUFMPA12A..02K
- Keywords:
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- 0815 Informal education;
- EDUCATION;
- 6329 Project evaluation;
- POLICY SCIENCES;
- 6349 General or miscellaneous;
- POLICY SCIENCES;
- 6620 Science policy;
- PUBLIC ISSUES