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Influence of Labeling and Incivility on Climate Change Communication

Summary and Keywords Labels play an important role in opinion formation, helping to actively construct perceptions and reality, and to place individuals into context with others. As a highly complex issue, climate change invites a range of different opinions and dialogues about its causes, impacts, and action required. Much work has been published in the academic literature aiming to categorize differences of opinion about climate change using labels. However, the debate about labels acts as a distraction to more fundamental and pressing issues of policy response. In addition, the undercurrent of incivility present in the climate change debate also contributes towards a hostile and unconstructive conflict. This is an evolving area of academic enquiry. Recent work has examined how the different labels of climate change opinions are constructed, used in practice, and portrayed differently in the public and policy spheres. The growing number of categorization systems used in the climate debate are also argued to have implications for the science-policy interface, creating a polarized debate involving many different actors and interfaces. Moving away from unhelpful use and construction of labels that lead to incivility would enable constructive and fruitful dialogue across this polarized debate. A way forward would be to explore further the role of underlying motivations and rationales as to why these different opinions about climate change come to exist in the first place. Focusing on potential overlaps in perceptions and rationales may encourage constructive discussion amongst actors previously engaged in purposefully antagonistic exchange on climate change. Keywords: climate change debate, labels, opinion, incivility, communication

In 1942, the sociologist Robert K. Merton introduced an influential conceptualization of scientific norms. These informal rules included communalism–that scientists should all be able to access scientific knowledge; universalism–that all scientists should be able to contribute to the creation of that knowledge; and disinterestedness–that all scientists should act for the greater good, rather than personal gain. But most notably among these Mertonian norms, is the emphasized ideal of organized skepticism. By way of this norm, all scientific claims should be subject to "an ongoing process of questioning, hypothesizing, validation, and refutation" (Sarewitz, 2000, p. 84) before they may be accepted. Even once they are accepted, they must continue to be questioned should new evidence emerge. The positivist tradition of contemporary science is strongly based on the idea that skepticism is a fundamental basis of the scientific process. Importantly, it emphasizes that conflicting arguments should be based either on flaws in existing evidence or on the production of new, contrary evidence. In the context of climate change, scientific debates may focus on overarching topics or specific physical relationships. Topics that have been debated include, for example, the relationship between sunspots and climate change (Huntingford & Fowler, 2008), the impact of clouds on climate feedback mechanisms (Baum, Haqq-Misra, & Karmosky, 2012), or whether or not specific weather events may be attributable to longer term climate change (Parmesan & Yohe, 2003). Disagreement about climate change is not surprising. As Merton first articulated, debate and the continued questioning of all findings and conclusions are fundamental parts of the scientific process. Climate change is a complex issue to communicate, particularly to non-scientists. This is additionally challenging when it is assumed that simply communicating about the science of climate change is sufficient to increase understanding, engagement, and willingness to act. This is known as the "technocratic model" or the "information deficit model" (Hulme, 2009; Sturgis & Allum, 2004); however, this linear approach often raises significant challenges in communication and debate on climate change. This is because viewpoints on contentious topics are not solely decided by evidence and may be influenced by many other factors (as we outline below). Nonetheless, the expectations of participants in the climate debate, notably decision-makers, can lead to an over-reliance on evidence-based policy that cannot necessarily be fulfilled, particularly where large uncertainties are involved and where decision-making processes are highly context-dependent (Dessai, Hulme, Lempert, & Pielke, 2009). Research into the boundaries of the science-policy interface has enabled a deeper understanding of how to manage the challenges that emerge in the climate debate (Jasanoff, 1990, 2004). Science that is used to inform decision-making needs to be perceived as credible (e.g. that it is rigorously assessed and reviewed), salient (e.g. that it is relevant to debate participants such as decision-makers), and legitimate (