At least 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that climate change is happening, and now research suggests that talking to the public about that consensus can help change people’s misconceptions, and can lead to small shifts in people’s beliefs and worry about climate change.
The study looked at more than 10,000 people across 27 countries, including Australia, and tested two messages around scientific consensus: the classic message that 97 per cent of climate scientists agree that human-caused climate change is happening, and an extra updated message that 88 per cent of climate scientists agree that climate change is a crisis.
They found that communicating the scientific consensus messages on climate change can reduce misperceptions about this consensus and produce small shifts in climate change beliefs and worry, but not shifts in support for public action.
The extra message, that climate change is a crisis, didn’t add much to the outcomes. Crucially, the study found that scientific consensus messages were most effective among people who had lower trust in climate scientists and right-leaning political ideologies.
The research appears in the journal Nature Human Behaviour.
Photo: Chris Slupski on Unsplash
