Subjective attribution, experiences, behaviors, and climate policy support during increasingly risky storms

Extreme weather events are intensifying due to climate change, requiring people to take action to prevent impacts. Subjective attribution—the perception that an extreme weather event is caused by climate change—is an important but understudied precursor to intended climate action. Real-world studies capturing near-real-time responses to actual extreme weather events are rare, thus limiting insight for effective intervention design. Our project involving three longitudinal studies of 3,513 participants for three US storms—two landfalling tropical cyclones (Hurricanes Henri [2021, in the US Northeast/Atlantic] and Ian [2022, in the US Gulf Coast and Southern Atlantic]) and one atmospheric river (Southern California, 2024)—finds the following: (1) subjective attribution on average does not change after experiencing a storm, (2) subjective attribution positively correlates with climate action, and (3) negative experience arising from exposure to a landfalling storm strengthens the relationship between subjective attribution and some types of climate action.