Polarization may cause climate communication to backfire
Wednesday, April 27, 2016 - 21:10
in Earth & Climate
Political polarization may cause communication about climate change to backfire, a new study finds. Even efforts that frame climate change around seemingly win-win issues such as economic growth or natural security are likely to fail if the communication conflicts with the partisan identity of its audience, exacerbating and hardening their opposition on the issue. The backfire effect doubles or triples in size among people with strong political interests.