TY - JOUR
T1 - Local temperature anomalies increase climate policy interest and support
T2 - Analysis of internet searches and US congressional vote shares
AU - Sisco, Matthew R.
AU - Weber, Elke U.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded by (1) the European Research Council under the European Community’s Programme “Ideas” — Call identifier: ERC-2013-StG/ERC grant agreement no. 336703—project RISICO “Risk and uncertainty in developing and implementing climate change policies”, (2) the National Science Foundation through the award NSF-1144854 “IGERT: From Data to Solutions: A New PhD Program in Transformational Data and Information Sciences Research and Innovation”, and (3) the cooperative agreement NSF SES-1463122 awarded to the Center for Research on Environmental Decisions.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022
PY - 2022/9
Y1 - 2022/9
N2 - Two studies examine the effects of temperature anomalies (relative to ten-year averages) on interest in and support for climate policies. Study 1 analyzes the impacts of local temperature anomalies on information acquisition, namely Google searches, about climate change and climate policies. We find strong evidence that temperature anomalies are associated with increased climate change information acquisition. Our results show that deviations from seasonal norms in both directions (i.e., temperatures higher or lower than expected) predict increased interest. Study 2 analyzes voting for Republican candidates, who in the timeframe of our data were not likely to support climate policies. Analysis of voting records from ten US midterm elections from 2002 to 2020 shows that greater local temperature anomalies are significantly associated with lower vote shares for Republican candidates.
AB - Two studies examine the effects of temperature anomalies (relative to ten-year averages) on interest in and support for climate policies. Study 1 analyzes the impacts of local temperature anomalies on information acquisition, namely Google searches, about climate change and climate policies. We find strong evidence that temperature anomalies are associated with increased climate change information acquisition. Our results show that deviations from seasonal norms in both directions (i.e., temperatures higher or lower than expected) predict increased interest. Study 2 analyzes voting for Republican candidates, who in the timeframe of our data were not likely to support climate policies. Analysis of voting records from ten US midterm elections from 2002 to 2020 shows that greater local temperature anomalies are significantly associated with lower vote shares for Republican candidates.
KW - Big data
KW - Climate mitigation behavior
KW - Climate policy support
KW - Information acquisition
KW - Local warming effect
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U2 - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102572
DO - 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2022.102572
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85135075000
SN - 0959-3780
VL - 76
JO - Global Environmental Change
JF - Global Environmental Change
M1 - 102572
ER -