Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Cognitive Science Society

Many strategies for changing beliefs about climate change center on information, evidence, and consensus presented by climate scientists. However, perceptions of scientist credibility act as a constraint where a lack of credibility decreases the effectiveness of their communication. Here, we consider the effects of messages on perceived credibility in terms of two components: skill and honesty. Using seven interventions focused on the credibility of climate scientists, we show that beliefs about scientist skill and honesty are core components of a system of related beliefs about human-caused climate change. Additionally, we demonstrate that messages focusing on the skill of climate scientists may be a more promising avenue for increasing the perceived credibility of climate scientists (and thus increasing belief in human-caused climate change). Finally, given the substantial message- and individual-level heterogeneity in effects, we argue that climate messaging may be a promising area for micro-targeting interventions.