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Emphasizing urgency of climate change is insufficient to increase policy support
Journal
One Earth
Type
journal article
Date Issued
2021-03-19
Author(s)
Fesenfeld, Lukas Paul
Abstract
Although many people are concerned about climate change, active public support for ambitious policies is still lagging behind. How can this gap be closed? Recent work has theorized that the perceived urgency of climate change drives public support for climate policy, but this lacks empirical evidence. Using advanced sparse regressions and comparative survey-embedded framing experiments with 9,911 eligible voters in Germany and the United States, we empirically studied the role of perceived urgency. Our study provides two findings. First, although perceived urgency is key in driving support for “low-cost” mitigation policies, it does not lead to more support for “high-cost” mitigation policies where the behavioral implications are visible. Second, while temporal reframing does not increase policy support or feelings of dread, context information about demand-side mitigation increases support for such costly climate policies. The results are particularly relevant for democracies, where ambitious policies require the support of citizens.
Language
English
Keywords
climate change
perceived urgency
public support
low-cost hypothesis
value-action gap
survey experiments
USA
Germany
climate policy
psychological distance
HSG Classification
contribution to scientific community
Refereed
Yes
Publisher
CellPress
Volume
4
Number
3
Start page
411
End page
424
Subject(s)
Division(s)
Eprints ID
263545