Results from South Florida Experiment

Abstract

Respondents were randomly assigned either to a control group or to a group that was shown a local map of flooding predicted to occur as a result of a Category 3 hurricane in the respondent’s city or county. Based on previous survey research, we had expected the maps to have an impact on perceived risk of sea-level rise, susceptibility of the home to flooding, and support for various mitigation measures. Instead, we found that those exposed to the maps were less likely to say they believed that climate change is occurring or that climate change is responsible for more extreme storms. This pattern was especially marked among Republicans. The most important predictors of sea-level rise attitudes were political party identification, gender and education as well as scores on the science questions. For beliefs about impacts on property values, the strongest predictor was political party affiliation.