Citizens’, Scientists’, and Policy Advisors’ Beliefs about Global Warming

2015/02/08 by Toby Bolsen, James N. Druckman, James Druckman +1 · 138 citations
Environmental Science · Social Sciences · #Biology #Climate Change Communication and Perception #Climate change #Ecology #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Global warming #Ideology #Law #Polarization (electrochemistry) #Political economy #Political science #Politics #Public policy #Publication #Risk Perception and Management #Sociology

paper · doi:10.1177/0002716214558393

published in The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 658(1), 271-295 (SAGE Publishing)

openalex publication_date 2015/02/08 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25

Abstract

Numerous factors shape citizens’ beliefs about global warming, but there is very little research that compares the views of the public with key actors in the policymaking process. We analyze data from simultaneous and parallel surveys of (1) the U.S. public, (2) scientists who actively publish research on energy technologies in the United States, and (3) congressional policy advisors and find that beliefs about global warming vary markedly among them. Scientists and policy advisors are more likely than the public to express a belief in the existence and anthropogenic nature of global warming. We also find ideological polarization about global warming in all three groups, although scientists are less polarized than the public and policy advisors over whether global warming is actually occurring. Alarmingly, there is evidence that the ideological divide about global warming gets significantly larger according to respondents’ knowledge about politics, energy, and science.

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