Republicans In the United States Show Greater Support for Climate-Change Adaptation Than for Climate-Change Mitigation (WP-25-19)
Robin Bayes, Daniel Molden, and James Druckman
Adaptation to the negative consequences of climate change is of increasing relevance. Yet, there remains limited understanding of how opinions about adaptation differ from opinions about mitigating the further progress of climate change among climate skeptics. The present preregistered study compares Republicans’ support for adaptation and mitigation across their beliefs, policy attitudes, and behavioral intentions. It also tests how framing adaptation as a response to extreme weather versus a response to climate change impacts Republicans’ opinions. The researchers find that Republicans express more support for adaptation than mitigation, and even more so when adaptation is framed as a response to extreme weather, across all outcomes except behavior. Moreover, these results were strongest among Republicans with strong versus weak partisan identity. Focusing on adaptation as an important response to extreme weather could thus help build an effective climate change coalition inclusive of Republicans, even those with strong partisan identities.