Environmental Studies and Forestry

Changing minds about climate change: a pervasive role for domain-general metacognition

S. D. Beukelaer, N. Vehar, et al.

Understanding how we update our beliefs about climate change could be the key to driving real behavioral change! This research by Sophie De Beukelaer, Neza Vehar, Max Rollwage, Stephen M. Fleming, and Manos Tsakiris reveals how metacognition plays a crucial role in belief polarization and skepticism about climate change. Dive into the findings to discover what helps or hinders our ability to revise our beliefs in the face of new information.

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Playback language: English

Index

Abstract

Updating beliefs about climate change is crucial for behavioral change. Metacognition—insight into the accuracy of one's beliefs—influences belief polarization. This study investigated the role of domain-general and domain-specific metacognition in updating climate change beliefs across varying levels of skepticism, considering textual and visuo-textual communication. Two large US samples (Study 1: n=364; Study 2: n=335) completed a perceptual decision-making task (assessing domain-general metacognition) and a belief-updating task (exposed to good/bad news about climate change). Results showed that climate change skepticism correlates with differences in domain-general and domain-specific metacognitive abilities. Lower domain-general metacognition decreased belief updating, especially with negative evidence. The study highlights the role of metacognitive failures in maintaining erroneous climate change beliefs.

Publisher

Humanities and Social Sciences Communications

Published On

Feb 04, 2023

Authors

Sophie De Beukelaer, Neza Vehar, Max Rollwage, Stephen M. Fleming, Manos Tsakiris

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