Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States
Personal efficacy, the information environment, and attitudes toward global warming and climate change in the United States
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DOI：
10.1111/j.1539-6924.2008.01010.x
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发表时间：
2008-02-01
期刊：
影响因子：
3.8
通讯作者：
Vedlitz, Arnold
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
Kellstedt, Paul M.;Zahran, Sammy;Vedlitz, Arnold
尽管关于全球变暖和气候变化风险的科学共识越来越多，但大众媒体经常将这一主题描绘成一个巨大的科学争议和辩论。然而，之前关于大众对全球变暖和气候变化风险的主观评估的研究，并没有充分考察公众的知情程度、公众对气候科学家的信心，以及个人效能在影响全球变暖结果中的作用。通过对美国人的原始和代表性样本的调查结果，我们发现这三种力量——知情、对科学家的信任和个人效能——以有趣和意想不到的方式联系在一起，并对全球变暖和气候变化的风险评估产生重大影响。特别是，更多知情的受访者认为个人对全球变暖的责任更少，对全球变暖的关注也更少。我们还发现，对科学家的信心产生了意想不到的影响：对科学家有高度信心的受访者对全球变暖的责任较小，对全球变暖的关注也较少。这些结果对科学家和公众之间的互动，特别是对全球变暖和气候变化的公众讨论具有重大意义。
Despite the growing scientific consensus about the risks of global warming and climate change, the mass media frequently portray the subject as one of great scientific controversy and debate. And yet previous studies of the mass public's subjective assessments of the risks of global warming and climate change have not sufficiently examined public informedness, public confidence in climate scientists, and the role of personal efficacy in affecting global warming outcomes. By examining the results of a survey on an original and representative sample of Americans, we find that these three forces-informedness, confidence in scientists, and personal efficacy-are related in interesting and unexpected ways, and exert significant influence on risk assessments of global warming and climate change. In particular, more informed respondents both feel less personally responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming. We also find that confidence in scientists has unexpected effects: respondents with high confidence in scientists feel less responsible for global warming, and also show less concern for global warming. These results have substantial implications for the interaction between scientists and the public in general, and for the public discussion of global warming and climate change in particular.