Public environmental skepticism: A cross-national and multilevel analysis

Environmental skepticism, defined as doubt about the authenticity or severity of environmental degradation, is common among the general public. This study attempts to identify its social bases, using a large and recent (2010) dataset that covers 45,119 individuals from 32 countries. Using multilevel modeling, it explores both individual-level and country-level influences on public environmental skepticism. The results support four individual-level perspectives (knowledge deficit, cultural orientation, social trust, and competing priority) and their interplay. Environmental skepticism stems from insufficient education and self-assessed environmental knowledge, religious and conservative values, lack of trust in general society and science, and other concerns competing with environmental concern. Moreover, the skepticism-reducing effect of education and self-assessed knowledge is found to be contingent on individuals’ religiosity and political ideologies. Education and self-assessed knowledge are more effective in reducing skepticism among less religious individuals and left-leaning liberals than among religious people and right-leaning conservatives.