Factual climate change reporting can influence Americans positively, but not for long


June 24, 2022

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Media coverage of climate change can influence Americans to adopt more accurate beliefs about the environment, but the information doesn't stay with them for long, according to a new report.

After reading accurate articles about climate change, Americans may see it more as a problem that impacts them and lean toward supporting the government's climate change policies.

"It is not the case that the American public does not respond to scientifically informed reporting when they are exposed to it," said Thomas Wood, one of the study's authors and an associate professor of political science at The Ohio State University.

But those changes are quickly reversed when participants are exposed to articles that doubted climate change...

Approximately 2,898 Americans participated in a four-part study, conducted by Wood, along with professors Brendan Nyhan of Dartmouth College and Ethan Porter of George Washington University.

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