Understanding Audience Views Toward Science
From climate change to energy development to the coronavirus, we examine public sentiment toward a variety of science topics. We want to know what people believe; how they feel; how they behave; and how much they support or oppose various types of policies. We also examine social, psychological, cultural, and other factors that drive these phenomena.
Examples of current projects include:
- Exploring public opinion on climate change, including Americans’ climate-related beliefs and behaviors and the Six Americas audience segmentation.
- Investigating public attitudes toward fossil fuels, renewable energy, and the public health impacts of climate change.
- Elucidating drivers of climate activism
- Examining public perceptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, including risk perceptions and emotional responses; mask-wearing behavior; and COVID vaccine promotion.
** Denotes current Mason personnel
Ballew, M., Bergquist, P., Goldberg, M., Gustafson, A., Kotcher, J.*, Marlon, J., Roess, A., Rosenthal, S., Maibach, E.*, & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Americans’ Risk Perceptions and Emotional Responses to COVID-19, April 2020. Yale University and George Mason University. New Haven, CT: Yale Program on Climate Change Communication.
Goldberg, M.H., Gustafson, A., Maibach, E.*, Ballew, M.T., Bergquist, P., Kotcher, J.*, Marlon, J.R., Rosenthal, S.A., & Leiserowitz, A. (2020). Mask-wearing increased after a government recommendation: A natural experiment in the U.S. during the COVID-19 pandemic. Frontiers in Communication