RAPID: Naturalistic effects of landmark scientific reports on public beliefs and attitudes

The effects of scientific evidence on the public's beliefs and attitudes are not well understood. In general, prior research suggests that exposure to scientific information is likely to shift people's factual beliefs but may not have corresponding effects on people's opinions or policy preferences. This study considers the landmark reports of the International Panel on Climate Change. IPCC reports attract enormous attention, but little experimental evidence exists about their effects on public opinion. This study evaluates the effects of exposure to the report with the goal of resolving longstanding puzzles about the effect of scientific evidence on beliefs and attitudes regarding polarizing issues and how these effects vary by the quantity of evidence to which people are exposed. The new knowledge will contribute to improving communications regarding climate change. This study consists of a multi-wave experiment centered around the release of the March 2023 IPCC report. Some participants receive an incentive to read the IPCC report and news coverage of it in the period after its release, while other participants are encouraged to consume unrelated information. The study also examines exposure to IPCC news and information in anonymized online behavior data provided by a subset of participants. This component of the research links beliefs and attitudes concerning climate change both to the experimental data regarding exposure to the IPCC report and to other online behavior. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.