A 27-country test of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change

• DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/bctm3
• Publication Date: 2023-09-14T05:03:45Z
• Authors: Bojana Većkalov; Sandra Jeanette G...; Mathew P. White; Bastiaan T Rutjens; Frenk van Harreveld; Federica Stablum; Berkan Akin; Alaa Aldoh; Jinhao Bai; Frida Berglund; Aleša Bratina Zimic; Margaret Broyles; Andrea Catania; Airu Chen; M.A. Chorzępa; Eman Farahat; Jakob Goetz; Bat; Gesine Jordan; Siri Joustra; Jonas Klingebiel; Živa Krajnc; Antonia Krug; Thomas Lind Andersen; Johanna Löloff; Divya Natarajan; Sasha Newman-Oktan; Elena Niehoff; Celeste Paerels; Rachel Papirmeister; Steven Peregrina; Felicia Pohl; Amanda Remsö; Abigail Roh; Binhayati Rusyidi; Justus Schmidt; Mariam Shavgulidze; Valentina Nardin; Ryan Wang; Kelly Coryn Warner; Miranda Wattier; Chloe Wong; Mariem Younssi; František Bartoš; Kai Ruggeri; Sander van der Li...
• Keywords: Scientific consensus; Worry

Communicating the scientific consensus that climate change is real increases beliefs, worry, and support for public action in US. Recent science goes beyond mere reality of change—there now broad agreement a crisis. In this preregistered 27-country experiment (N = 10,527), we tested two messages, classic message on an updated additionally emphasizing crisis status agreement. The corrects misperceptions slightly beliefs worry but not action. equally effective provides no added value. Both messages are more audiences with lower familiarity higher misperceptions, including those trust scientists right-leaning ideologies. Overall, messaging effective, non-polarizing tool communication across diverse audiences.