ISTPP researchers Dr. Bryce Hannibal and Dr. Arnold Vedlitz recently published a paper titled “Social Capital, Knowledge, and the Environment: the Effect of Interpersonal Communication on Climate Change Knowledge and Policy Preferences” in Sociological Spectrum.
Drs. Hannibal and Vedlitz seek to identify relationships between interpersonal discussion networks and an individual’s assessed and perceived scientific knowledge of climate change. They then analyze these variables to determine whether knowledge mediates the relationship between climate change policy preferences and discussion networks. The data used for their analysis comes from a nationally representative survey administered in 2013 that includes over 1,300 completed responses. The authors use a conditional process model to provide a statistical test for the mediation effect of discussion and knowledge on policy preferences. They then use a nonparametric bootstrapping test of significance with the mediation effect.
Hannibal, Bryce, and Arnold Vedlitz. 2018. “Social Capital, Knowledge, and the Environment: The Effect of Interpersonal Communication on Climate Change Knowledge and Policy Preferences.” Sociological Spectrum 38(4): 277–293. DOI:https://doi.org/10.1080/02732173.2018.1502108
