This week’s freezing temperatures may have temporarily re-enforced climate specticism, while heat waves, on the other hand, increase belief in global warming. A team of climate scientists and psychologists found out that the explanation is the phenomenon of attribute substitution, whereby people prefer to use less relevant but more easily available information (such as today’s temperature) over less-accessible but more thorough evidence.
Original research article published in Nature Climate Change on January 12, 2014
Name and affiliations of selected authors:
Lisa Zaval, département de psychologie, Université Columbia, États-Unis
