Abstract Would you follow advice about personal energy conservation from a climate specialist with a large carbon footprint? Many climate researchers report anecdotes in which their sincerity was challenged based on their alleged failure to reduce carbon emissions. Here, we report the results of two large online surveys that measure the perceived credibility of a climate researcher who provides advice on how to reduce energy use (by flying less, conserving home energy, and taking public transportation), as a function of that researcher’s personal carbon footprint description. Across the two studies, we randomly assigned partici- pants to one of 18 vignettes about a climate scientist. We show that alleged large carbon footprints can greatly reduce the researcher’s credibility compared to low footprints.Gee, ya think?
Wednesday, March 13, 2019
People don't listen to Green Hypocrites
It's Science! telling us that:
I'd guess that over 90% of the time my first reaction to a study is to either laughingly dismiss it (all the medical/diet "he who" studies) or say, "I hope they didn't pay too much for that one".
ReplyDeleteThis one is firmly in the second category.
With luck, one study every few weeks seems worthy of attention.
When Al Gore sells his beachfront property, then I might start paying attention to him and his snake oil sales pitches.
ReplyDeleteWho am I kidding. No I won't. That ship has sailed, burned, capsized and sunk.