Climate science may change minds, but skeptics still undo progress – Are you making progress with that?

Essay by Eric Worrall

According to Associate Professor Thomas Wood, the impact of climate education is fragile, and exposure to climate skeptic voices quickly detracts from progress in changing mindsets and attitudes.

June 20, 2022

The science of climate change reporting can change minds – in a nutshell

Accurate beliefs quickly fade, especially if challenged

Jeff Grabmeier Ohio State News [email protected]

Scientific reporting on climate change leads Americans to more accurately believe and support government action on the issue – but the benefits are slim, a new study suggests.

The researchers found that these exact beliefs quickly fade and can be eroded as people are exposed to climate change skeptical coverage.

“It is not the case that the American public did not react to a scientifically informed report when they were exposed to it,” said Thomas Woodassociate professor of Political Science at Ohio State University.

“But even factually accurate scientific reporting pulls out of people’s frames of reference very quickly.”

The study will be published on June 24, 2022 in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Wood did the research with Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College and Ethan Porter of George Washington University.

The results show that accurate scientific reporting has not only convinced Democrats – Republicans and those who initially dismissed human-caused climate change have also changed their minds by How to read articles correctly.

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Wood said it’s important that accurate reporting has a positive impact on all groups, including Republicans and climate change deniers. But what’s even more exciting is that it affects attitudes.

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But the results show that the positive effects on people’s trust are short-lived. These effects largely disappeared in subsequent studies.

Additionally, public narratives of skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change overturn the accuracy of science.

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Read more: https://news.osu.edu/science-coverage-of-climate-change-can-change-minds–briefly/

Poor climate scientists, if only they silenced all the climate skeptics, they could convince all Republicans to join their crusade to destroy the carbon demon. Or something like that.