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Published May 16, 2013 This content is archived.
Sixty-two percent of Americans now say they believe that global warming is happening and only 16 percent say it is not, according to the April report of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication. However, the percentage of climate change deniers has increased by four points since September and 46 percent of them say they are “very” or “extremely” sure they are correct.
In addition, only 49 percent of Americans claim to know why climate change is occurring, and about as many say they’re not worried about it.
Since information about climate change is ubiquitous in the media, researchers at UB and the University of Texas-Austin looked at why many Americans know so little about its causes and why many are not interested in finding out more.
The study, “What, Me Worry? The Role of Affect in Information Seeking and Avoidance,” was conducted by Z. Janet Yang, UB assistant professor of communication, and Lee Ann Kahlor, associate professor of public relations and advertising at UT-Austin. It was published in the April issue of the journal Science Communication.
“Our key variables of interest were ‘information seeking’ and ‘information avoidance’” Yang says. “We found that emotions have different impacts on both behaviors and that those with whom we socialize also are an important influence on our communication behaviors.”
In particular, according to Yang, the study found:
The study involved an online survey of 736 undergraduates from two large U.S. universities (61.3 percent female, 62.5 percent white, median family income $90,000).
The research survey, developed and executed using Qualtrics software, was designed to ascertain:
“Earlier research in social psychology has found that emotion, both positive and negative, is motivational and involves action tendency and action readiness,” Yang explains.
“Those with a negative affect may seek out information, even if it includes negative predictions, in order to reduce their uncertainty and perhaps reassert control over the situation,” says Yang.
“On the other hand, those with a positive affect who say they avoid seeking information may do so because they want to maintain their uncertainty—and their emotional equilibrium—from negative information that might upset them as well as contradict the attitudes of their social support group.”
The researchers say the study results present several ways to improve the communication of risk information related to climate change. They say the data on subjects’ reported information sufficiency suggests that risk communication about climate change might benefit from these approaches: