There is no one public response to climate change. Instead, there are different audiences or “interpretive communities” within society who each respond to the issue in their own distinct ways. One of the first rules of effective communication is “know thy audience” – including who they are, what they currently understand or misunderstand about climate change, their perceptions of the risks, their underlying values, attitudes, and emotions, where they get their information, whom they trust, etc.
Our research seeks to identify and understand these different audiences as a critical first step to more effective education and communication.