Geological Society of America

T103 Barriers, Misconceptions, and Progress in Improving Climate Literacy and Strategies for Communicating about Climate Change

Monday, 23 October 2017
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 3A

RELATING UNDERSTANDING AND RISK PERCEPTION WITH A VALIDATED MEASURE OF CLIMATE CHANGE CONCEPTIONS

Paper number: T103-8
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 9:35 AM – 9:50 AM

Authors

Julie C. Libarkin Presenting Author
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI
Anne Gold
University of Colorado at Boulder, CO, Boulder, CO
Sara E. Harris
University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC
Karen Mcneal
Auburn University, Auburn, AL
Ryan Bowles
Michigan State University, East Lansing, MI

Abstract

The relationship between climate change understanding and other variables, including risk perception, beliefs, and worldviews, is an important consideration as we work to increase public attention to climate change. Despite significant effort to develop rigorous mechanisms for measuring affective variables, measurement of climate change conceptions is often relegated to single questions or unvalidated question sets. To remedy this situation, we constructed and analyzed a climate change concept inventory using a suite of validity and reliability steps, including Rasch analysis. The resultant 21-item test has a high degree of validity and reliability. Inventory scores along with other variables were included in a model of climate change risk perception, providing both concurrent validity for the test as well as new insight into the importance of conceptions, worldview, and values on risk perception. Overall, risk perception in the general public was most strongly related to environmental values and worldview.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-307676

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