Sampling and processing of climate change information and disinformation across three diverse countries

Area of Science:

• Environmental Psychology
• Media Psychology
• Climate Change Communication

Background:

• Accurate climate information and disinformation coexist, creating competing narratives.
• Previous research shows disinformation negatively impacts climate beliefs.
• Limited understanding exists on how people seek climate content across cultures.

Purpose of the Study:

• Investigate how individuals seek and process climate-related information.
• Examine cross-cultural differences in information seeking and processing.
• Understand the dynamics of navigating conflicting climate narratives.

Main Methods:

• A preregistered experiment involving sequential sampling of Pro- and Anti-climate statements over 15 rounds.
• Participants (N=2226) from the United States, China, and Germany sampled real-world climate statements from Twitter.
• Analysis of information seeking behavior, belief alignment, and climate concern.

Main Results:

• Reading both Pro- and Anti-climate statements influenced climate concern in all countries.
• Participants showed a confirmatory tendency, preferring statements aligned with initial beliefs, which intensified over time.
• Confirmatory evaluation (accepting aligned, rejecting opposing messages) increased with information sampling.
• US participants exhibited mutual reinforcement between climate concern and message selection, leading to increased polarization.

Conclusions:

• Individuals actively navigate conflicting climate narratives by seeking confirmatory information.
• Confirmatory bias in information processing can strengthen over time and across cultures.
• The study highlights mechanisms contributing to climate change belief polarization, particularly in the US context.