How Believing Climate Change is a “Hoax” Shapes Climate Skepticism in the United States

Abstract

Using data gathered from an online survey of residents of the geographic Pacific Northwest (N = 1000) who are skeptical of climate change, we examine the nuances of the belief that climate change constitutes a ‘hoax’. In doing so, we begin to fill an important ‘conspiracy gap’ in extant literature on climate skepticism. Results reveal that, among climate change skeptics, conspiracy adherents are more likely to be male, politically conservative, older, more religious, more educated, and have higher levels of income compared to non-conspiracists. Furthermore, conspiracy adherents and non-conspiracists vary in important ways in their levels of institutional trust, information sources, pro-environmental beliefs, and emotion-based responses to climate change. Recognizing these important differences among groups that constitute U.S. climate skeptics could potentially open up new avenues for climate change communication and policy.