RESEARCH INTERESTS

ENVIRONMENTAL AND SOCIAL POLICY; CLIMATE CHANGE; SUSTAINABILITY; PERCEPTIONS OF CLIMATE CHANGE; ISSUE FRAMING; SOCIAL IDENTITY

Dissertation OVERVIEW

To Believe or Not to Believe? The Impact of Political Communication on the Beliefs of Climate Change Skeptics in the United States

Despite considerable evidence that climate change is occurring and will have severe consequences, many Americans remain skeptical and are impeding efforts to address the problem. The purpose of my dissertation research is to explore the extent to which political communication affects perceptions of climate change among climate skeptics. The research consists of three interrelated studies that jointly that jointly build an understanding of the determinants of climate change perceptions (i.e., belief that climate change is occurring, belief that climate change is anthropogenic; perceived risk of personal harm by climate change; and, support for climate policy measures). The first analysis is a descriptive and qualitative analysis that provides a profile of the average climate skeptic and a bird’s eye view of the factors that might contribute to skepticism. The second analysis is a survey experiment that examines extent to which message framing affects climate skeptics’ beliefs. Finally, the third analysis is a survey experiment that focuses on the effect of the identity of the person sharing information about climate change on climate skeptics’ beliefs. The aim of these studies is to help public leaders and government officials to tailor their messages to more effectively educate the public.

SKILLS

Mixed methods research; NVivo; Stata; Qualtrics; LUCID; survey design; survey implementation; data analysis; policy recommendations