Social Media, Political Polarization, and Climate Change: A Systematic Literature Review

Research on environmental communication reveals that addressing the impact of social media on climate change-related discussions is urgently needed if we are to accelerate the transition toward climate-neutral societies. To this end, this systematic literature review presents the findings of a content analysis of 27 peer-reviewed scientific articles investigating the relationship between social media, political polarization, and climate change—preceding Elon Musk's bid to acquire Twitter on April 14, 2022. The review yields contradictory findings with regard to the degree of polarization in climate change-related conversations on social media: 13 publications find some instances of polarization, 6 report none, and 8 remain inconclusive. Despite these divergent results, the review points to clear relationships between the existence of polarized climate change-related conversations in the studies' findings and their foci, type of data employed, and forms of polarization approached. Specifically, polarized climate change-related discussions on social media clearly overshadow studies that explore communicative interactions, utilize digital trace data, and address affective polarization. In contrast, in publications investigating the effects of exposure to climate change-related information on social media, particularly those relying on self-reported data to examine ideological polarization, the predominant trend is either the absence of polarization or inconclusive results.