Climate Change Denial
Three aspects of climate change denial will be discussed: the psychology of denial, the beliefs of political elites, and climate misinformation. The section on psychology cites a 2020 paper about motivated denial – knowing the facts but denying them – and briefly refers to information processing and the links between emotion and cognition in two later papers. The section on political elites is based on a 2026 survey of elected officials, staffers, regulators, lobbyists, and policy professionals in the United States. The final section cites two recent papers, one on the spread and persistence of climate misinformation, the other predicting its future development. Psychology of denial “Action on climate change is currently minimal, and woefully inadequate for steering away from the worst trajectories and impacts.” These were the opening words of a 2020 paper entitled Understanding and Countering the Motivated Roots of Climate Change Denial . By motivated denial, the authors meant “kn...