A new paper published in the current issue of the Journal of Health Communication by Annenberg Public Policy Center (APPC) researchers finds evidence that holding science-consistent beliefs about the public health effects of climate change is an important predictor of support for policies that address climate threats.
In “Science-Consistent Climate Health Beliefs as Predictors of Climate Behaviors and Support for Inflation Reduction Act Provisions and a Carbon Emissions Tax,” a research team from the Annenberg Public Policy Center examined the relationship between health-related beliefs about climate change and support for climate policy proposals, as well as a willingness to advocate for climate policies and to report engaging in pro-climate behaviors.
The researchers found that science-consistent beliefs about the effects of climate change on public health predicted support for climate action, even after controlling for belief in the existence and cause of climate change.
“In this study, people who believe that these public health effects of climate change are real were more likely to support climate action, regardless of whether they said they believed that climate change is real and human-caused,” says lead author Shawn Patterson Jr., a research analyst at the APPC.
The finding that science-consistent beliefs about these health risks predicts support for climate action has important implications for messaging about climate change.
“This study provides additional evidence that belief grounded in science-consistent knowledge matters,” says Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the APPC and a co-author of the study.
Read more at the Annenberg Public Policy Center.
