A four-party view of US environmental concern

Abstract

Research on US public concern about environmental issues finds ideology or political party are the most consistent background predictors. Party is commonly defined by three groups: Democrats, Republicans, and Independents. Here, using statewide New Hampshire survey data, we elaborate this approach to distinguish a fourth group: respondents who say they support the Tea Party movement. On 8 out of 12 science- or environment-related questions, Tea Party supporters differ significantly from non–Tea Party Republicans. Tea Party supporters are less likely than non–Tea Party Republicans to trust scientists for information about environmental issues, accept human evolution, believe either the physical reality or the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change, or recognise trends in Arctic ice, glaciers, or CO₂. Despite factual gaps, Tea Party supporters express greater confidence in their own understanding of climate change. Independents, on the other hand, differ less from non–Tea Party Republicans on most of these questions—although Independents do more often accept the scientific consensus on climate change. On many science and environmental questions, Republicans and Tea Party supporters stand farther apart than Republicans and Independents.

Keywords:

• environmental concern
• public opinion
• Tea Party
• survey research
• climate change

Acknowledgements

Environmental questions on the Granite State Poll are supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (New Hampshire EPSCoR EPS-1101245, PoLAR Climate Change Education Partnership DUE-1239783, Sea Ice Prediction Network PLR-1303938), and by the Carsey School and Sustainability Institute at the University of New Hampshire. Sampling and interviews are conducted by the Survey Center at the University of New Hampshire. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their suggestions.