Assessing climate change beliefs: Response effects of question wording and response alternatives

Murni Greenhill; Zoe Leviston; Rosemary Leonard; Iain Walker

doi:10.1177/0963662513480117

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Assessing climate change beliefs: Response effects of question wording and response alternatives

Journal article

Peer reviewed

Assessing climate change beliefs: Response effects of question wording and response alternatives

Murni Greenhill, Zoe Leviston, Rosemary Leonard and Iain Walker

Public Understanding of Science, Vol.23(8), pp.947-965

2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0963662513480117

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Abstract

Journalism and Professional Writing

History and Philosophy of Specific Fields

Curriculum and Pedagogy

climate change beliefs

climate change causation questions

question wording effects

response consistency

To date, there is no 'gold standard' on how to best measure public climate change beliefs. We report a study (N = 897) testing four measures of climate change causation beliefs, drawn from four sources: the CSIRO, Griffith University, the Gallup poll, and the Newspoll. We found that question wording influences the outcome of beliefs reported. Questions that did not allow respondents to choose the option of believing in an equal mix of natural and anthropogenic climate change obtained different results to those that included the option. Age and belief groups were found to be important predictors of how consistent people were in reporting their beliefs. Response consistency gave some support to past findings suggesting climate change beliefs reflect something deeper in the individual belief system. Each belief question was assessed against five criterion variables commonly used in climate change literature. Implications for future studies are discussed.

Details

Title: Assessing climate change beliefs: Response effects of question wording and response alternatives
Authors: Murni Greenhill (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystems Sciences
Zoe Leviston (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystems Sciences
Rosemary Leonard (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystems Sciences
Iain Walker (Author) - CSIRO Ecosystems Sciences
Publication details: Public Understanding of Science, Vol.23(8), pp.947-965
Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd.
Date published: 2014
DOI: 10.1177/0963662513480117
ISSN: 0963-6625
Organisation Unit: University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; Sustainability Research Cluster
Language: English
Record Identifier: 99449192002621
Output Type: Journal article

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