Scientists Are Figuring Out the Keys to Convincing People About Global Warming

The latest survey data from Yale and George Mason universities underscores the partisan divide on climate science denial – 73% of Americans realize that global warming is happening, including 71% of liberal/moderate Republicans, but the average is dragged down by the mere 47% of conservative Republicans who answer this question correctly.  On the bright side, this is a big improvement from the 28% of conservative Republicans who realized global warming was happening just two years ago.

Similarly, 56% of Americans realize global warming is mostly caused by humans, including 49% of liberal/moderate Republicans, but the number is again dragged down by the 26% of conservative Republicans correctly answering this question.
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The keys to convincing people on climate change
Social scientists have identified several key pieces of knowledge that might convince people – even conservatives – about the need to tackle global warming.

• Shi’s team showed that when people realize humans are causing global warming, they’re more likely to be concerned about the problem.
• Social scientists at UC Berkeley have shown that when people understand how the greenhouse effect works, they’re more likely to accept human-caused global warming, across the political spectrum.
• Research by teams led by Lewandowsky has shown that when people are aware of the 90–100% expert consensus on human-caused global warming, they’re more likely to accept that reality, and to support climate policies.  Meanwhile, only 16% of Americans, including just 4% of Republicans, realize the expert consensus is so high.

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