Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/245956 
Authors: 
Year of Publication: 
2021
Series/Report no.: 
Oldenburg Discussion Papers in Economics No. V-438-21
Publisher: 
University of Oldenburg, Department of Economics, Oldenburg
Abstract: 
Cognitions about climate change are of critical importance for climate change mitigation as they influence climate-relevant behaviors and the support of climate policy. Using about 30,000 observations from a large-scale representative survey from 23 European countries, this study provides two major findings. First, important policy-relevant climate change cognitions do not only differ by individuals' ideological identity (left versus right) but - independently - by their moral identity, that is, the pattern of endorsement of the moral foundations: Care, Fairness, Liberty, Loyalty, Authority and Purity/Sanctity. In particular, controlling for ideological position the cognitions that the world climate is changing, that climate change is human-made, and that climate change impacts are bad are significantly negatively related to stronger endorsement of the Authority and Sanctity foundations while being positively related to stronger endorsement of the Loyalty and Fairness foundations. Second, not only the ideology-related cognitive divide but the morality-related divide is larger in individuals with tertiary education, consistent with the idea that individuals with greater science literacy and numeracy use these skills to adjust their cognitions to their group identity. The finding that better education may amplify rather than attenuate the ideology and morality dependence of decision-relevant climate change cognitions sheds doubt on the proposition that better education unambiguously furthers the prospects for climate change mitigation.
Subjects: 
climate change cognition
identity-protective cognition
ideological identity
moral identity
moral foundations
educational attainment
Document Type: 
Working Paper

Files in This Item:
File
Size
554.58 kB





Items in EconStor are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.