Affiliation: University of Geneva

Abstract:

Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries

Tobia Spampatti1,2*, Ulf J. J. Hahnel1,3, Evelina Trutnevyte4, and Tobias Brosch1,2

1 Swiss Centre for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

2 Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland

3 Faculty of Psychology, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland

4 Renewable Energy Systems, University of Geneva, Switzerland

Decades after the scientific debate about the anthropogenic causes of climate change has been settled, climate disinformation still challenge the scientific evidence in public discourse. Here, we present a comprehensive theoretical framework of (anti)science belief formation and updating to account for the psychological factors that influence acceptance or rejection of scientific messages. We experimentally investigated, across twelve countries (N=6816), the effectiveness of six inoculation strategies targeting these factors – scientific consensus, trust in scientists, transparent communication, moralization of climate action, accuracy, and positive emotions – to fight real-world disinformation about climate science and mitigation actions. While exposure to disinformation had strong detrimental effects on participants’ climate change beliefs (δ=-0.16), affect towards climate mitigation action (δ=-0.33), ability to detect disinformation (δ=-0.14), and pro-environmental behavior (δ=-0.24), we found almost no evidence for protective effects of the inoculations (all δs<0.20). We discuss the implications of these findings and propose ways forward to fight climate disinformation.