Perceptions of Americans' beliefs about global warming : forces that shape them and their consequences
Abstract/Contents
- Abstract
- In the last two decades, there has been an explosion of social science research on climate change public opinion. An implicit goal of this research is to understand why public opinion is seemingly at odds with the scientific understanding of the issue. Past research investigating this so-called "climate paradox" spans diverse disciplines in the social sciences and has uncovered various potential explanations for its existence. However, until only very recently, the role perceptions of others play in climate change public opinion formation has been largely ignored. Recognizing the potential influence of perceptions of others' beliefs on individual beliefs, this dissertation investigates the relationship between perceptions of public opinion and individual beliefs on global warming (also referred to throughout as "climate change"). In so doing, it expands the collective understanding of how perceptions of public opinion form on political and controversial issues, while simultaneously contributing to the understanding of climate change public opinion. Through a series of seven studies, this dissertation accomplishes the following. First, it documents, for the first time, widespread misperception of others' climate change beliefs using national probability samples of American adults. Next, it introduces several new factors important to how people form perceptions of public opinion on global warming. These studies demonstrate that opinion deviance, the state of holding a belief that is at odds with the espoused belief of prominent figures associated with one's political party, perceived party proportions, an individual's perception of the proportion of Americans in each political party, and the political news media's narrative of a partisan divide in the country are all important contributors to perception formation. And finally, it explores the consequences of misperceptions, demonstrating that some people align their beliefs with the (incorrectly) perceived majority belief of a political ingroup even though that perceived majority opinion is at odds with the science
Description
| Type of resource | text |
|---|---|
| Form | electronic resource; remote; computer; online resource |
| Extent | 1 online resource |
| Place | California |
| Place | [Stanford, California] |
| Publisher | [Stanford University] |
| Copyright date | 2020; ©2020 |
| Publication date | 2020; 2020 |
| Issuance | monographic |
| Language | English |
Creators/Contributors
| Author | Abeles, Adina Tamar |
|---|---|
| Degree supervisor | Krosnick, Jon A |
| Thesis advisor | Krosnick, Jon A |
| Thesis advisor | Bailenson, Jeremy |
| Thesis advisor | Hancock, Jeffrey |
| Thesis advisor | Tomz, Michael |
| Degree committee member | Bailenson, Jeremy |
| Degree committee member | Hancock, Jeffrey |
| Degree committee member | Tomz, Michael |
| Associated with | Stanford University, Department of Communication. |
Subjects
| Genre | Theses |
|---|---|
| Genre | Text |
Bibliographic information
| Statement of responsibility | Adina T. Abeles |
|---|---|
| Note | Submitted to the Department of Communication |
| Thesis | Thesis Ph.D. Stanford University 2020 |
| Location | electronic resource |
Access conditions
- Copyright
- © 2020 by Adina Tamar Abeles
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