Presentation Type
Poster
Faculty Mentor’s Full Name
Rachel Williamson
Faculty Mentor’s Department
Psychology
Abstract / Artist's Statement
Climate change poses numerous, urgent threats to human existence, yet policy for climate action has occurred at an alarmingly slow rate. In the US, governing bodies have failed to engage in climate action. From withdrawal of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, to exponentially high greenhouse gas emissions, climate change has been portrayed as a partisan issue — or not an issue at all. Researchers have identified political polarization as one barrier to climate action (Doell et al., 2021). However, other research has demonstrated that the vast majority of individuals agree that climate change is caused by human action, regardless of political party (Van Boven et al., 2018). In the current study, we aim to explore beliefs of personal responsibility toward combating climate change in association with political identity. 250 participants, identifying as either republican, democrat, or independent, were included in the study. We plan to conduct ANOVA analyses to investigate differences between political identity and feelings of personal responsibility to address climate change. Findings from this study may have implications for potential barriers to the adoption of climate policy.
Category
Social Sciences
The Influence of Political Affiliation on Climate Change Attitudes
UC South Ballroom
Climate change poses numerous, urgent threats to human existence, yet policy for climate action has occurred at an alarmingly slow rate. In the US, governing bodies have failed to engage in climate action. From withdrawal of the Kyoto Protocol and Paris Agreement, to exponentially high greenhouse gas emissions, climate change has been portrayed as a partisan issue — or not an issue at all. Researchers have identified political polarization as one barrier to climate action (Doell et al., 2021). However, other research has demonstrated that the vast majority of individuals agree that climate change is caused by human action, regardless of political party (Van Boven et al., 2018). In the current study, we aim to explore beliefs of personal responsibility toward combating climate change in association with political identity. 250 participants, identifying as either republican, democrat, or independent, were included in the study. We plan to conduct ANOVA analyses to investigate differences between political identity and feelings of personal responsibility to address climate change. Findings from this study may have implications for potential barriers to the adoption of climate policy.