ASSESSMENT OF SCIENCE KNOWLEDGE IN CLIMATE CHANGE RISK PERCEPTION STUDIES

Cultural cognition thesis (CCT) posits that people’s risk perceptions of controversial topics (e.g., climate change, gun control and vaccination) are guided by their cultural identities. A particularly intriguing prediction of CCT suggests decreasing awareness of climate change risk perceptions with increasing science literacy. In this pilot study, we surveyed a group of people at the Geological Society of America (GSA), 2013, meeting in Denver, Colorado, on their climate science literacy, cultural beliefs and climate change risk perceptions. We found no evidence for increasing climate change skepticism with increased literacy. The result is attributed to an undetected bias in the survey design of earlier CCT studies. We demonstrate that CCT studies were biased in their science literacy assessments and discuss why such a bias can be particularly misleading. We also discuss the implications of this research for science education policy.