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What Do Video Gamers Think About Global Warming?


Executive Summary

This report describes global warming beliefs, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors among U.S. adults who play video games (n = 2,034). The survey was conducted from May 30 – June 7, 2022.

Video games have become one of humanity’s favorite forms of entertainment, with an estimated 3 billion players worldwide. People of all ages, nationalities, genders, and socioeconomic statuses play, and it is this broad and extensive reach that creates an enormous opportunity to address climate change. This study helps lay a foundation for engagement that the gaming community can build on.

Key findings from this study include the following:

Global Warming Attitudes & Risk Perceptions

  • About three in four video gamers (73%) think global warming is happening, and the majority of video gamers (56%) understand that global warming is mostly human-caused. These proportions are nearly identical to the proportions in the U.S. population overall, as measured in the Climate Change in the American Mind study conducted in April and May of 2022 (72% believe global warming is happening, 56% believe it is human-caused).
  • Seven in ten video gamers (70%) say they are either “somewhat” or “very” worried about global warming, compared with 64% of the U.S. population overall.
  • Video gamers feel a range of emotions related to global warming. Half or more video gamers say they feel either “very” or “moderately” interested (68%), sad (57%), afraid (54%), disgusted (54%), angry (52%), hopeful (53%), or outraged (50%) when thinking about global warming. In comparison, fewer U.S. residents overall say they feel most of these emotions related to global warming (interested, 62%; disgusted, 51%; sad, 51%; afraid, 46%; angry, 44%; outraged, 42%; hopeful, 38%).
  • About half of video gamers (48%) either “strongly” or “somewhat” agree that they have personally experienced the effects of global warming, compared with 43% of U.S. residents overall. By contrast, only about one in three (33%) video gamers say that global warming is harming people in the U.S. “right now,” which is much lower than the proportion of U.S. residents overall who say so (48%).
  • Most video gamers think global warming will harm plant and animal species (74%), future generations of people (72%), people in developing countries (69%), the world’s poor (69%), people in the U.S. (67%), people in their community (60%), their family (58%), and themselves personally (56%). These proportions are similar to the U.S. population overall, although the percentage who think global warming will harm them personally is higher among video gamers than among the U.S. population overall (47%).

Personal and Social Engagement with Global Warming

  • About one in five video gamers (22%) have seen or heard content related to global warming as part of gaming in the last 12 months, either as a topic in a game they have played (16%) or in a video gaming stream they have watched (16%).
  • Additionally, about one in eight video gamers (13%) say they took actions based on the content they learned about global warming in a game or gaming stream.
  • More than four in ten video gamers (45%) say they either “often” or “occasionally” discuss global warming with family and friends, compared with only about one in three U.S. residents overall (33%).
  • About half of video gamers (51%) say they hear about global warming in the media once a month or more often, compared with 56% of U.S. residents overall. Furthermore, about one in three (34%) say people they know talk about global warming once a month or more often, compared with only 24% of the U.S. population overall.
  • Most video gamers (61%) say taking action to reduce global warming is at least moderately important to their family and friends, compared with only 40% of U.S. residents overall. Furthermore, most video gamers (53%) say their family and friends make at least a moderate amount of effort to reduce global warming, compared with 40% of U.S. residents overall.
  • About three in four video gamers (74%) say the issue of global warming is important to them personally, compared with only about two in three U.S. residents overall (64%).
  • Most video gamers (63%) say they feel a personal sense of responsibility to help reduce global warming.
  • Video gamers say they either “strongly” or “somewhat” trust family and friends (69%), climate scientists (69%), educators (64%), environmental organizations (63%), television weather reporters (59%), community leaders (49%), journalists (47%), religious leaders (45%), the mainstream news media (43%), online influencers and personalities (36%), corporations (35%), or political leaders (32%) as sources of information about global warming.

Who Should Act on Global Warming?

  • About half of video gamers are at least “moderately confident” that people from the gaming community, working together, can affect what local businesses (52%), corporations (52%), their state government (50%), the federal government (49%), or their local government (48%) does about global warming.
  • Most video gamers (56%) say that the gaming industry has a responsibility to act on global warming, and it should do what it can to reduce its own carbon emissions.
  • Additionally, more than four in ten video gamers (45%) think the video gaming industry should be doing either “much more” (14%) or “more” (31%) to address global warming.
  • Most video gamers (54%) think global warming should be either a “very high” or “high” priority for the president and Congress. Additionally, about six in ten video gamers (61%) think developing sources of clean energy should be either a “very high” or high priority. These proportions are about the same as the U.S. population overall (51% and 61%, respectively).

Personal and Collective Actions to Limit Global Warming

  • More than half of video gamers (59%) say they either “probably” or “definitely” would sign a petition about global warming. Many video gamers also say they would volunteer their time (49%) or donate (48%) to an organization working on global warming, contact government officials about global warming (45%), or meet with an elected official or their staff (41%). The proportion of video gamers who say they would engage in these actions is higher than the U.S. population overall, where half or fewer say they would sign a petition (51%), volunteer (32%), donate (31%), contact officials (29%), or meet with an elected official (27%).
  • Additionally, more than four in ten video gamers (44%) would support an organization engaging in non-violent civil disobedience against corporate or government activities that make global warming worse, and 38% would personally engage in such non-violent civil disobedience. In contrast, only 27% of U.S. residents overall say that they would support non-violent civil disobedience, and 17% say they would personally engage in it.
  • A majority of video gamers (52%) say they are either “probably” (25%) or “definitely” (19%) willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming or are currently participating in such a campaign (7%). In contrast, only 27% of U.S. residents overall say they would participate in a campaign for climate action, and only about 1% say they are currently doing so.
  • About half of video gamers (49%) say they have rewarded companies that are taking steps to reduce global warming by buying their products one or more times in the past 12 months. More than four in ten video gamers (43%) say they have punished companies that are opposing steps to reduce global warming by not buying their products one or more times.

Global Warming’s Six Americas

  • Research conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication and the George Mason University Center for Climate Change Communication has found that people in the United States can be categorized into six distinct groups based on their beliefs and attitudes about climate change (Global Warming’s Six Americas). About three in ten video gamers are Alarmed (29%), while only 7% are Dismissive. Additionally, about one in four video gamers are Concerned (27%) about global warming, and another one in four are Cautious (25%). About one in twelve (8%) are Doubtful, and few video gamers (4%) are Disengaged. These proportions are similar to the U.S. population overall.