Climate Change Attitudes Depend More on Ideology Than Education

By CnAgri2012-09-11 19:49:58 Print

Jonathon Schuldt, assistant professor of communication at Cornell University, discusses how attitudes toward global warming or climate change relate to political party registration and educational attainment.

Schuldt is the lead author of a study comparing Americans' belief in "global warming" versus "climate change." It is currently published in the peer-reviewed journal, Public Opinion Quarterly. The study can be viewed at: poq.oxfordjournals.org/content/75/1/115

He says:, "Climate concern -- and the belief that global climate change is real -- is highly partisan. According to Pew survey data, 77 percent of Democrats agree that there is 'solid evidence' the planet is getting warmer, whereas only 43 percent of Republicans share that view, a partisan divide of 34 percent.

"For Democrats, more education seems to predict increased belief in global climate change; for Republicans, some studies find just the opposite: more education predicts decreased belief. So it appears that a person's ideological worldview is a much more robust predictor of their climate beliefs and concerns than their level of education or knowledge about the issue.

"Another factor that has only recently received attention from researchers is how the issue is framed in communications: When we asked Americans to report their belief in 'global warming,' we found a sizable partisan divide: 86.9 percent of Democrats believed global warming is occurring, but only 44 percent of Republicans believed it was real. But when we simply asked them for their belief in 'climate change' the opinion gap was dramatically reduced: 86.4 percent of Democrats and 60.2 percent of Republicans believed climate change is real.

"Put another way, when the issue is framed as 'global warming,' most Republicans don't believe it's really happening -- but most Republicans do believe it's real when it is framed as 'climate change.'

"So it seems that a person's political orientation and what the issue is called affect whether they endorse that it is a real and concerning issue.

"There is an optimistic message to take away from our findings: Given the partisan gulf that exists on many contemporary political issues, it seems that Democrats and Republicans may be closer on this issue than previously thought."