Do Partisanship and Politicization Undermine the Impact of Scientific Consensus on Climate Change Beliefs?
James N. Druckman is the Payson S. Wild Professor of Political Science and Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University, and is also an honorary professor of political science at Aarhus University in Denmark. He studies political and scientific preference formation and communication. He co-authored the book Who Governs? Presidents, Public Opinion, and Manipulation, co-edited the Cambridge Handbook of Experimental Political Science, and has published roughly 100 articles and book chapters in political science, communication, economic, science, and psychology journals.
Abstract: We investigate the role of partisan group identity and the politicization of science in undermining the impact of a scientific consensus message about human-induced climate change. We find that partisan identity – and especially politicization – can stunt the effect of a scientific consensus statement about climate change.
