Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change.
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Publication Date
2017-02-27Journal Title
Glob Chall
ISSN
2056-6646
Publisher
Wiley
Volume
1
Issue
2
Pages
1600008
Language
eng
Type
Article
This Version
VoR
Physical Medium
Electronic-eCollection
Metadata
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van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., Rosenthal, S., & Maibach, E. (2017). Inoculating the Public against Misinformation about Climate Change.. Glob Chall, 1 (2), 1600008. https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600008
Abstract
Effectively addressing climate change requires significant changes in individual and collective human behavior and decision-making. Yet, in light of the increasing politicization of (climate) science, and the attempts of vested-interest groups to undermine the scientific consensus on climate change through organized "disinformation campaigns," identifying ways to effectively engage with the public about the issue across the political spectrum has proven difficult. A growing body of research suggests that one promising way to counteract the politicization of science is to convey the high level of normative agreement ("consensus") among experts about the reality of human-caused climate change. Yet, much prior research examining public opinion dynamics in the context of climate change has done so under conditions with limited external validity. Moreover, no research to date has examined how to protect the public from the spread of influential misinformation about climate change. The current research bridges this divide by exploring how people evaluate and process consensus cues in a polarized information environment. Furthermore, evidence is provided that it is possible to pre-emptively protect ("inoculate") public attitudes about climate change against real-world misinformation.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1002/gch2.201600008
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/270860
Rights
Licence:
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
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