… Social science theory and prior research suggest that people have a “finite pool of worry,” such that worrying about one issue will decrease concern about other issues. In a national survey on American Responses to COVID-19, conducted separately from this survey, we found that most American adults were quite worried about COVID-19 in April, and justifiably so given the large number of deaths and serious illnesses it was causing at the time. Given the finite pool of worry hypothesis, we were prepared to find dramatically reduced levels of concern about climate change in this survey. Although we did find a slight decline in the proportion of Americans who report being “very worried” about climate change since our previous survey in November 2019, overall, the results of the current survey are remarkably consistent with our previous survey, with several indicators of public engagement actually reaching record levels. CONT.
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication & George Mason U. Center for Climate Change Communication
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