Building Consensus for Ambitious Climate Action Through the World Climate Simulation. Issue 12 (23rd November 2021) - Rooney‐Varga, Juliette N.
Abstract: Sociopolitical values are an important driver of climate change beliefs, attitudes, and policy preferences. People with "individualist‐hierarchical" values favor individual freedom, competition, and clearly defined social hierarchies, while "communitarian‐egalitarians" value interdependence and equality across gender, age, heritage, and ethnicity. In the US, individualist‐hierarchs generally perceive less risk from climate change and express lower support for actions to mitigate it than communitarian‐egalitarians. Exposure to scientific information does little to change these views. Here, we ask if a widely used experiential simulation, World Climate, can help overcome these barriers. World Climate combines an engaging role‐play with an interactive computer model of the climate system. We examine pre‐ and post‐ World Climate survey responses from 2, 080 participants in the US and use a general linear mixed model approach to analyze interactions among participants' sociopolitical values and gains in climate change knowledge, affect, and intent to take action. As expected, prior to the simulation, participants holding individualist‐hierarchical values had lower levels of climate change knowledge, felt less urgency, and expressed lower intent to act than those holding communitarian‐egalitarian values. However, individualist‐hierarchs made significantly larger gains across all constructs, particularly urgency, than communitarian‐egalitarians. Participants' sociopolitical values also shifted: those with individualistic‐hierarchical values before the simulation showed a substantial, statistically significant shift toward a communitarian‐egalitarian worldview. Simulation‐based experiences like World Climate may help reduce polarization and build consensus towards science‐based climate action. Plain Language Summary: The politicization of climate change makes it difficult to build support for urgently needed climate action. Americans who value individualism and traditional social hierarchies tend to be less concerned about climate change and less supportive of climate action than those who value interdependence and egalitarianism. While mass communication about climate change is more prevalent than ever, it may only make polarization worse. We ask whether a simulation‐based approach can overcome the climate change communication challenges caused by polarization. In the widely used World Climate simulation, participants work together to create a global agreement to address climate change. They interact with each other and with a computer model, C‐ROADS, which gives them immediate feedback about the long‐term climate impacts of their decisions. We measure more than 2, 000 participants' climate change knowledge, sense of urgency, and intent to act before and after the simulation and find that they make gains in all three areas. Participants who value individualism and social hierarchies make greater gains in their climate change beliefs and attitudes than others. Their social and political values also shift towards the center. Simulations like World Climate may be a promising way to reduce polarization and build support for climate action. Key Points: Climate change simulations that combine interactive role‐play and computer models enable people to learn for themselves The widely used World Climate simulation reduces polarization and motivates climate action across political divides We also find evidence of a shift in World Climate participants' sociopolitical values from individualistic‐hierarchical towards the center