Authors ’ draft PUBLIC KNOWLEDGE AND CONCERN ABOUT POLAR-REGION WARMING
In 2006 and 2010, before and after the International Polar Year, the General Social Survey asked cross sections of the U.S. public for their knowledge and opinions about polar regions. The opinion items sought respondents ’ levels of concern about global warming in polar regions, and whether they fa...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Text |
| Language: | English |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.401.5857 http://pubpages.unh.edu/~lch/Hamilton2012_PolarGeo_authors.pdf |
| Summary: | In 2006 and 2010, before and after the International Polar Year, the General Social Survey asked cross sections of the U.S. public for their knowledge and opinions about polar regions. The opinion items sought respondents ’ levels of concern about global warming in polar regions, and whether they favored opening Antarctica for development or reserving it for science. Polar knowledge scores show significant improvement from 2006 to 2010, while general science literacy scores and opinions remain largely unchanged. Regression of concern and Antarctic items on demographic characteristics, ideology, education and the two knowledge tests finds that ideology and knowledge have the most consistent effects. Conservative ideology negatively predicts all six concern items, and support for reserving the Antarctic. Polar knowledge exhibits a positive effect on most of the concern items, and on support for reserving the Antarctic. General science knowledge, on the other hand, has effects that vary with ideology. These findings support two contrasting views about the role of information: that more science information leads to greater concern about environmental changes, or greater support for science; but also that some high-information, partisan respondents acquire new information selectively, so that it reinforces their belief systems and makes them the most polarized. |
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