The impact of politicized and costly climate policies on trust in scientific information and policy support - Discussion paper

This discussion paper used survey experiments, to investigate how politicization and the financial cost of climate policies influence public trust in scientific information about climate change. The results show that citizens' trust in science-based information on climate is not solely judged by its content itself, but also by its political context. When a climate policy is associated with a political affiliation, trust in the scientific information decreases compared to when the policy is politically neutral. This result is independent of the political party supporting the policy. Right-bloc voters are more likely to believe that scientific information overstates problems with climate change, irrespective of if the Conservative Party or the Green Party endorses the policy. Left-bloc voters are more likely to believe that scientific information overstates the problem with climate change only if the Green Party endorses the policy. However, there is no effect on policy support on political endorsement. Varying the financial cost of the policy to induce cognitive dissonance had no significant effect on trust in the scientific information; instead, as expected, higher cost substantially reduced policy support.