Doctoral Dissertation Research: Trust-Building Communication and Climate Decision Making

公众对政府、联邦机构和公共卫生组织等治理机构缺乏信任，限制了国家减轻气候相关风险的能力。美国环境保护局宣布，重建公众信任对其保护公众和环境健康的使命至关重要。值得信赖的风险信息来源更有说服力，更有可能激发适应性行为。本论文通过建立理论和信息传递策略来增加对气候治理的信任，加入了美国环保署等国家领导人的行列。关于环境健康风险的建立信任的沟通既可以修复公众对气候领导组织的看法，也可以促进气候适应行为。因此，本论文解决了科学传播的关系和转化挑战，通过使气候科学更容易被极端高温风险的社区所接受，以支持公共健康和安全。该项目开发并应用了一个理论驱动的信任决定模型，为面向公众的气候传播者提供战略信息建议。该项目为公众对治理的信任制定了概念和经验支持的测量方法，并在极端高温防范背景下使用随机对照试验测试建立信任的信息传递策略。比较具有高可信度和低可信度指标的信息的说服结果可以衡量策略的有效性。此外，该工作还根据受众先前的气候变化信念确定了定制信息的最佳实践。本文提供了关于在建立对治理的信任的同时传达有关气候风险的相关信息的实用指南。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

A lack of public trust in governance institutions such as governments, federal agencies, and public health organizations limits national capacities to mitigate climate-related risks. The Environmental Protection Agency has declared rebuilding public trust critical to its mission of protecting public and environmental health. Trustworthy sources of risk information are more persuasive and more likely to motivate adaptive behaviors. This dissertation joins national leaders like the EPA in this effort by building theory and messaging strategies to increase trust in climate governance. Trust-building communication about environmental health risks can both repair public perceptions of climate leadership organizations and promote climate adaptive behaviors. Accordingly, this dissertation addresses relational and translational challenges of science communication to support public health and safety by making climate science more accessible to communities at-risk from extreme heat.This project develops and applies a theory-driven model of trust determination to create strategic messaging recommendations for public-facing climate communicators. The project develops conceptually and empirically supported measurements for public trust in governance and tests trust-building messaging strategies using randomized controlled trials in the context of extreme heat preparedness. Comparison of persuasive outcomes between messages with high and low indicators of trustworthiness measures the strategies’ efficacy. Further the work identifies best practices for tailored messaging based on an audience’s prior climate-change beliefs. This dissertation yields practical guidelines about communicating pertinent information about climate risks while building trust in governance.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.