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。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。可靠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战略来增加对气候治理的信任，从而加入了美国环保署等国家领导人的努力。关于环境健康风险的信任建立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翻译的挑战，以支持公众健康和安全，使气候科学更容易接触到极端高温的风险社区。该项目开发和应用的信任决定的理论驱动模型，以创建面向公众的气候传播者的战略信息建议。该项目在概念上和经验上支持对治理的公众信任的测量，并在极端高温准备的背景下使用随机对照试验测试建立信任的信息传递策略。比较具有高可信度指标和低可信度指标的信息之间的说服结果可以衡量策略的功效。此外，这项工作还确定了根据受众先前的气候变化信念进行量身定制的信息传递的最佳做法。该论文产生了关于沟通有关气候风险的相关信息，同时建立对治理的信任的实用指南。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

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.