Report · Feb 13, 2025
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Fall 2024
By Anthony Leiserowitz, Edward Maibach, Seth Rosenthal, John Kotcher, Emily Goddard, Jennifer Carman, Teresa Myers, Marija Verner, Jennifer Marlon, Matthew Goldberg, Joshua Ettinger, Julia Fine and Kathryn Thier
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Climate Impacts and Behaviors & Actions
4. Personal and Social Engagement with Global Warming
4.1 Most Americans “rarely” or “never” discuss global warming with family and friends.
A majority of Americans (62%) say they either “rarely” (30%) or “never” (33%) discuss global warming with family and friends (refer to data tables, p. 46), while 38% say they discuss it either “occasionally” (33%) or “often” (5%).
4.2 Fewer than half of Americans perceive social norms for taking action on global warming.
Social science research has shown that two types of social norms can have a powerful influence on people’s behavior: injunctive norms (the belief that friends and family expect you to behave in a given way) and descriptive norms (the belief that friends and family are themselves behaving in that way).Schultz, P. W., Nolan, J. M., Cialdini, R. B., Goldstein, N. J., & Griskevicius, V. (2007). The constructive, destructive, and reconstructive power of social norms. Psychological Science, 18(5), 429-434. doi:10.1111/j.1467-9280.2007.01917.x
Just over one-third of Americans (37%) perceive an injunctive norm, saying it is either “extremely” (4%), “very” (8%), or “moderately” (25%) important to their family and friends that they take action to reduce global warming. Similarly, 36% perceive a descriptive norm, saying their family and friends make either “a great deal of effort” (3%), “a lot of effort” (6%), or “a moderate amount of effort” (27%) to reduce global warming.
4.3 Many Americans hear about global warming in the media at least once a month; fewer hear about it on social media or hear people they know talking about it.
Many Americans (47%) say they hear about global warming in the media once a month or more often, while 41% say they hear about global warming in the media several times a year or less often, including 8% who say they never hear about global warming in the media.
In contrast, only 27% of Americans say they hear about global warming on social media once a month or more often, while 56% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 28% who say they never hear about global warming on social media. Similarly, only 20% of Americans say they hear people they know talk about global warming once a month or more often, while 71% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 28% who say they never hear people they know talk about global warming.
4.4 A majority of Americans say the issue of global warming is personally important to them.
About two-thirds of Americans (65%) say the issue of global warming is either “extremely” (14%), “very” (22%), or “somewhat” (29%) important to them personally (refer to data tables, p. 52). About one-third (35%) say global warming is either “not too” (18%) or “not at all” (17%) personally important.
4.5 About three in ten Americans say they have engaged in consumer activism on global warming.
About three in ten Americans (31%) say that at least “once” over the past 12 months, they have rewarded companies that are taking steps to reduce global warming by buying their products. About one-quarter (26%) say that at least “once” over the past 12 months, they have punished companies that are opposing steps to reduce global warming by not buying their products.
