Climate skeptics’ identity construction and (Dis)trust in science in the United States

Abstract

In this paper we argue that climate change skepticism is an opinion-based social identity rooted in subjectively perceived marginality and exclusion from climate science. We use 33 interviews conducted with climate skeptics in Idaho and scholarship on social identity theory to examine identity construction among skeptics. Skeptics construct themselves as open-minded truth-seeking questioners of climate change and social outsiders who face ostracism from climate scientists, while concurrently producing an understanding of climate scientists as an oppositional identity: untrustworthy and exclusive. Skeptics’ identity construction provides insights into their trust/distrust judgments of climatology and suggests new pathways to effectively communicate climate change across social groups.