How weather experiences strengthen climate opinions in Europe
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How weather experiences strengthen climate opinions in Europe. / Damsbo-Svendsen, Søren.
In: West European Politics, Vol. 44, No. 7, 2021, p. 1604-1618.Research output: Contribution to journal › Journal article › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - How weather experiences strengthen climate opinions in Europe
AU - Damsbo-Svendsen, Søren
PY - 2021
Y1 - 2021
N2 - Previous research has shown that we believe more in the reality of climate change when we experience warmer-than-usual temperatures. This reflects a psychological process in which easily accessible information from personal weather experiences is used as a heuristic to form climate opinions. This paper replicates and extends upon a research design and results of Egan and Mullin to provide the first systematic European study of the Local Warming Effect. Based on data from 12 European countries, the analysis shows that when objective temperatures increase by two standard deviations (5 C) relative to normal temperatures, climate opinions are strengthened by around 0.5–1.0 percentage points – comparable to the effect of a full step to the left on a 0–10 political ideology scale.
AB - Previous research has shown that we believe more in the reality of climate change when we experience warmer-than-usual temperatures. This reflects a psychological process in which easily accessible information from personal weather experiences is used as a heuristic to form climate opinions. This paper replicates and extends upon a research design and results of Egan and Mullin to provide the first systematic European study of the Local Warming Effect. Based on data from 12 European countries, the analysis shows that when objective temperatures increase by two standard deviations (5 C) relative to normal temperatures, climate opinions are strengthened by around 0.5–1.0 percentage points – comparable to the effect of a full step to the left on a 0–10 political ideology scale.
KW - Faculty of Social Sciences
KW - Local warming effect
KW - global warming
KW - temperature
KW - personal experience
KW - public opinion
U2 - 10.1080/01402382.2020.1792731
DO - 10.1080/01402382.2020.1792731
M3 - Journal article
VL - 44
SP - 1604
EP - 1618
JO - West European Politics
JF - West European Politics
SN - 0140-2382
IS - 7
ER -
ID: 248202502