A recent study published in The Journal of Social Psychology has uncovered a significant link between understanding of politics and belief in climate change conspiracies. Researchers found that individuals with a lower political knowledge are more likely to have a stronger sense of national pride, which further encouraged the endorsement of conspiracy theories denying climate change.
Climate change has been a hot topic for decades, with scientific evidence from many independent sources supporting the idea that carbon dioxide emissions from human activities are the main driver behind the rising global temperatures.
Despite this, a portion of the population remains skeptical, swayed by conspiracy theories that claim climate change is a hoax orchestrated by scientists and nefarious entities to control the population.
The study, conducted by a team of researchers led by Piotr Michalski from the Polish Academy of Sciences, aimed to understand why some people are more susceptible to such conspiracy beliefs.
They proposed that a lack of political knowledge could lead to an inflated defensiveness of national identity – i.e. national narcissism – explaining that “understanding the rules governing the society alters the way people identify with their nation. In other words, people who know how democracy works should not perceive different ideas or suggestions as a way to gain control over the society but rather as a result of democratic processes.”
The authors then noted, “individuals high in collective narcissism are motivated to show everyone that their ingroup does not succumb to pressure from other groups and international organizations,” and suggested that this attitude could foster belief in climate change conspiracy theories.
To test their hypothesis, Michalski’s team conducted a study involving 558 Polish participants (272 females, 286 males) who were aged 18-25, where data was collected at two time points six months apart.
“We decided to focus on young people because understanding why they endorse climate-related conspiracy beliefs is important due to the long-term social change potential they have. Furthermore, this age group has been actively engaged in various climate change-related social activities and had a significant impact on the public awareness of the environmental crisis,” the researchers explained.
Using questionnaires, they measured the participants’ political knowledge along two dimensions – current political knowledge (i.e. knowledge of the current political landscape, including key political figures and events) as well as theoretical political knowledge (i.e. understanding of the theoretical structure of the political system). Also measured was national narcissism, national identification and belief in global warming conspiracies.
Michalski’s team discovered that individuals with lower levels of current and theoretical political knowledge were more likely to believe in climate change conspiracies. Furthermore, national narcissism (but not national identification) partially acted as a mediator in this relationship, meaning that those with less understanding of their country’s political system were more likely to identify with their nation in a narcissistic way, which was associated with a denial of climate change.
The researchers concluded, “it seems that political education [provides] young people with both dimensions of political knowledge … could be an important factor influencing their attitudes regarding climate change. Providing young people with information about the principles of democracy could also potentially have an impact on various negative outcomes of this type of in-group identity, such as resistance to pro-environmental policies, out-group hostility, support for populism, or endorsement of other types of conspiracy beliefs.”
Some limitations to their analyses should be noted. For instance, the study did not include a measurement of how much individuals placed distrust in scientific theories, which may have influenced the relationship between political knowledge and global warming conspiracy beliefs.
The study, “When the sun goes down: Low political knowledge and high national narcissism predict climate change conspiracy beliefs”, was authored by Piotr Michalski, Marta Marchlewska, Paulina Górska, Marta Rogoza, Zuzanna Molenda, and Dagmara Szczepańska.