Global Warming’s “Six Americas Short Survey”: Audience Segmentation of Climate Change Views Using a Four Question Instrument
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Authors
Chryst, B
Marlon, J
van der Linden, S
Leiserowitz, A
Maibach, E
Roser-Renouf, C
Publication Date
2018Journal Title
Environmental Communication
ISSN
1752-4032
Publisher
Informa UK Limited
Volume
12
Issue
8
Pages
1109-1122
Type
Article
Metadata
Show full item recordCitation
Chryst, B., Marlon, J., van der Linden, S., Leiserowitz, A., Maibach, E., & Roser-Renouf, C. (2018). Global Warming’s “Six Americas Short Survey”: Audience Segmentation of Climate Change Views Using a Four Question Instrument. Environmental Communication, 12 (8), 1109-1122. https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1508047
Abstract
Audience segmentation has long been used in marketing, public health, and communication, and is now becoming an important tool in the environmental domain as well. Global Warming's Six Americas is a well-established segmentation of Americans based on their climate change beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors. The original Six Americas model requires a 36 question-screener and although there is increasing interest in using these segments to guide education and outreach efforts, the number of survey items required is a deterrent. Using 14 national samples and machine learning algorithms, we identify a subset of four questions from the original 36, the Six Americas Short SurveY (SASSY), that accurately segment survey respondents into the Six Americas categories. The four items cover respondents' global warming risk perceptions, worry, expected harm to future generations, and personal importance of the issue. The true positive accuracy rate for the model ranges between and across the six segments on a 20 hold-out set. Similar results were achieved with four out-of-sample validation data sets. In addition, the screener showed test-retest reliability on an independent, two-wave sample. To facilitate further research and outreach, we provide a web-based application of the new short-screener.
Identifiers
External DOI: https://doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2018.1508047
This record's URL: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/285758
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