Yale Program on Climate Change Communication

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 (69%) say they either “rarely” (34%) or “never” (35%) discuss global warming with family and friends (refer to data tables, p. 48). In comparison, 31% say they discuss it either “occasionally” (27%) or “often” (4%). The last time the gap between these numbers was so large was 10 years ago (Spring 2016).

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

More than one-third of Americans (39%) perceive an injunctive norm, saying it is either “extremely” (3%), “very” (10%), or “moderately” (25%) important to their family and friends that they take action to reduce global warming. Similarly, 33% perceive a descriptive norm, saying their family and friends make either “a great deal of effort” (2%), “a lot of effort” (5%), or “a moderate amount of effort” (26%) to reduce global warming.

4.3 Relatively few Americans hear about global warming in the media at least once a month; even fewer hear about it on social media or hear people they know talking about it.

Relatively few Americans (39%) say they hear about global warming in the media once a month or more often, while 49% say they hear about global warming in the media several times a year or less often, including 11% who say they never hear about it.

Additionally, only 24% of Americans say they hear about global warming on social media once a month or more often, while 58% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 26% who say they never hear about global warming on social media. Similarly, only 17% of Americans say they hear people they know talk about global warming once a month or more often, while 75% say they do so several times a year or less often, including 33% who say they never hear people they know talk about global warming.

As noted above, relatively few Americans hear about global warming at least once a month in the media, on social media, or from people they know. In addition, there have been overall downward trends in these percentages since their all-time highs in 2021 and 2022.We first asked how often Americans hear about global warming on social media in 2024. This includes an 18-point decrease in the percentage of Americans who hear about global warming in the media at least once a month (from 57% to 39%) and an eight-point decrease in the percentage who hear people they know talk about global warming at least once a month (from 25% to 17%).

4.4 A majority of Americans are interested in news stories about topics related to global warming.

A majority of Americans are at least “a little” interested in news stories about issues related to global warming. This includes stories about how global warming is affecting the cost of living (76%), actions being taken by the U.S. government in response to global warming (75%), the causes of global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming on their local community (74%), the impacts of global warming around the world (74%), actions that are being taken by businesses in response to global warming (74%), the impacts of global warming elsewhere in the United States (73%), actions being taken that make global warming worse (73%), actions being taken in their local community in response to global warming (72%), actions being taken by foreign governments in response to global warming (71%), actions being taken to oppose solutions to global warming (69%), and whether global warming is or is not happening (66%).

4.5 Many Americans would like to hear more from companies about efforts to reduce global warming.

Many Americans (44%) say they would like to hear from companies about efforts to reduce global warming either “much more often” (24%) or “somewhat more often” (20%), and an additional 20% say they would like to hear about efforts to reduce global warming “about the same as [they] do now.” Fewer (16%) say they would like to hear from companies about global warming “much less” (11%) or “somewhat less” often (4%), and 20% say it doesn’t matter.

4.6 A majority of Americans say the issue of global warming is personally important to them.

A majority of Americans (65%) say the issue of global warming is either “extremely” (14%), “very” (21%), or “somewhat” (30%) important to them personally (refer to data tables, p. 6).

Fewer Americans (35%) say global warming is either “not too” (15%) or “not at all” (19%) personally important.

4.7 About three in ten Americans say they have engaged in consumer activism on global warming.

About three in ten Americans (29%) 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.