Americans experience a false social reality by underestimating popular climate policy support by nearly half

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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32412-y


Excerpt: ...Systematic misperception of public opinion ...like a widespread underestimation of public support for climate action could inhibit willingness to talk about the problem with others..., and could lead people to falsely conclude that the vocal minority who dismiss climate change are representative of broader public opinion.... Further, given that most Americans report concern about climate change and support many policies to address the issue..., why has the US not yet enacted major climate policy to address the issue? If most Americans were unaware of the popularity of their pro-climate action views, this could encourage inaction through pressures to conform to the (mis)perceived political attitudes of others, a phenomenon robust across the political spectrum.... These concerning possibilities raise the question: Do Americans accurately perceive public support for climate mitigation? ...the vast majority of Americans greatly underestimate how many of their fellow Americans worry about climate change and support transformative climate policies to remedy the situation. ...We find that roughly 80–90% of Americans underestimate the true level of concern for climate change as well as support for transformative climate policies like a carbon tax, 100-percent renewable energy mandates, and a Green New Deal. Not only are these misperceptions nearly universal in the country, but the magnitude is large enough to fully invert the true reality of public opinion: although polls show that a supermajority support these climate policies (66–80%), the average American’s estimate of public opinion suggests it is just a minority (37–3%...). In other words, supporters of major climate policies outnumber opponents 2 to 1, but Americans falsely perceive nearly the opposite to be true. In fact, Americans’ estimates for all national support for climate policies is roughly the same or even lower than even just Republican levels of support.… 

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