How Believing Climate Change is a “Hoax” Shapes Climate Skepticism in the United States

ABSTRACT

Using data gathered from an online survey of residents of the geographic Pacific Northwest (N = 1000) who are skeptical of climate change, we examine the nuances of the belief that climate change constitutes a ‘hoax’. In doing so, we begin to fill an important ‘conspiracy gap’ in extant literature on climate skepticism. Results reveal that, among climate change skeptics, conspiracy adherents are more likely to be male, politically conservative, older, more religious, more educated, and have higher levels of income compared to non-conspiracists. Furthermore, conspiracy adherents and non-conspiracists vary in important ways in their levels of institutional trust, information sources, pro-environmental beliefs, and emotion-based responses to climate change. Recognizing these important differences among groups that constitute U.S. climate skeptics could potentially open up new avenues for climate change communication and policy.

KEYWORDS:

• Climate skepticism
• conspiracy ideation
• perceptions of climate change
• pro-environmentalism
• climate change

Disclosure statement

The authors affirm that they have no conflict of interest regarding this project.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded by a University of Idaho, College of Letters, Arts, and Social Sciences, Interdisciplinary Grant.

Notes on contributors

Dilshani Sarathchandra

Dr. Dilshani Sarathchandra is an associate professor of sociology at the University of Idaho. She works primarily in sociology of science, knowledge and technology. Her research focuses on decision-making processes in science, predictors of public attitudes toward science and technology, and social dimensions of health.

Kristin Haltinner

Dr. Kristin Haltinner is an associate professor of sociology, the director of the certificate in diversity and inclusion, and the director of the Africana Studies minor at the University of Idaho. Haltinner is a political sociologist and studies perceptions of climate change, right-wing ideology, racial formation and discourse, social inequality, and critical pedagogy. Her recent projects focus on the TEA Party Patriots, climate change skepticism, and nativist militias.