Report · Jan 27, 2026
Climate Change in the American Mind: Beliefs & Attitudes, Fall 2025
By Anthony Leiserowitz, John Kotcher, Seth Rosenthal, Emily Goddard, Jennifer Carman, Marija Verner, Teresa Myers, Joshua Ettinger, Julia Fine, Emily Richards, Matthew Goldberg, Jennifer Marlon and Edward Maibach
Filed under: Beliefs & Attitudes, Behaviors & Actions and Climate Impacts
3. Emotional Responses to Global Warming
3.1 A majority of Americans are worried about global warming.
A majority of Americans (64%) say they are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming. This includes 29% who say they are “very worried.”
3.2 Most Americans underestimate how worried the American public is about global warming.
Pluralistic ignorance – the widespread misperception of public opinion about an issuePrentice, D. A., & Miller, D. T. (1993). Pluralistic ignorance and alcohol use on campus: Some consequences of misperceiving the social norm. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 64(2), 243-256. doi;10.1037/0022-3514.64.2.243 – can affect the importance people place on that issue and their subsequent behavior.Bolsen, T., Leeper, T. J., & Shapiro, M. A. (2014). Doing what others do: Norms, science, and collective action on global warming. American Politics Research, 42(1), 65-89. doi.org/10.1177/1532673X134841
As described in section 3.1, 64% of Americans are at least “somewhat worried” about global warming (this percentage has ranged from about 61% to 70% over the last few years). However, most Americans underestimate how worried the American public is about global warming.Respondents were asked: “To the best of your knowledge, what percentage of adults in the United States (18 years or older) are worried about global warming?” They estimated the percentage by moving a slider bar that appeared on the screen of their computer. This slider allowed respondents to move the marker from 0% on the left to 100% on the right, or to any whole number between the two. A “don’t know enough to say” response option appeared below the slider bar. Only 8% of Americans accurately estimate the percentage of Americans who are worried about global warming. A majority of Americans (61%) underestimate this percentage and an additional 24% indicate that they “don’t know enough to say.” In contrast, only 7% overestimate the percentage of Americans who are worried about global warming.
3.3 A majority of Americans are “interested” in global warming.
When asked how strongly they feel various emotions when thinking about global warming, more than half of Americans (57%) say they feel “very” or “moderately” interested. Additionally, many say they feel sad (48%), afraid (45%; 6 percentage points higher than when we last asked this question in Spring 2025; refer to data tables, p. 52), angry (42%), hopeless (40%; +6 percentage points from Spring 2025; refer to data tables, p. 53), or hopeful (37%).
