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Growing polarization around climate change on social media

Author

Listed:
  • Max Falkenberg

    (City University of London)

  • Alessandro Galeazzi

    (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice)

  • Maddalena Torricelli

    (City University of London)

  • Niccolò Di Marco

    (University of Florence)

  • Francesca Larosa

    (University College London
    Euro-Mediterranean Center on Climate Change (CMCC))

  • Madalina Sas

    (Imperial College London)

  • Amin Mekacher

    (City University of London)

  • Warren Pearce

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Fabiana Zollo

    (Ca’ Foscari University of Venice
    New Institute Centre for Environmental Humanities)

  • Walter Quattrociocchi

    (Sapienza University of Rome)

  • Andrea Baronchelli

    (City University of London
    British Library)

Abstract

Climate change and political polarization are two of the twenty-first century’s critical socio-political issues. Here we investigate their intersection by studying the discussion around the United Nations Conference of the Parties on Climate Change (COP) using Twitter data from 2014 to 2021. First, we reveal a large increase in ideological polarization during COP26, following low polarization between COP20 and COP25. Second, we show that this increase is driven by growing right-wing activity, a fourfold increase since COP21 relative to pro-climate groups. Finally, we identify a broad range of ‘climate contrarian’ views during COP26, emphasizing the theme of political hypocrisy as a topic of cross-ideological appeal; contrarian views and accusations of hypocrisy have become key themes in the Twitter climate discussion since 2019. With future climate action reliant on negotiations at COP27 and beyond, our results highlight the importance of monitoring polarization and its impacts in the public climate discourse.

Suggested Citation

  • Max Falkenberg & Alessandro Galeazzi & Maddalena Torricelli & Niccolò Di Marco & Francesca Larosa & Madalina Sas & Amin Mekacher & Warren Pearce & Fabiana Zollo & Walter Quattrociocchi & Andrea Baronc, 2022. "Growing polarization around climate change on social media," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 12(12), pages 1114-1121, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcli:v:12:y:2022:i:12:d:10.1038_s41558-022-01527-x
    DOI: 10.1038/s41558-022-01527-x
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    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Livia van Vliet & Petter Törnberg & Justus Uitermark, 2020. "The Twitter parliamentarian database: Analyzing Twitter politics across 26 countries," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(9), pages 1-24, September.
    2. P. M. Hartigan, 1985. "Computation of the Dip Statistic to Test for Unimodality," Journal of the Royal Statistical Society Series C, Royal Statistical Society, vol. 34(3), pages 320-325, November.
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    Cited by:

    1. Arnold J. Bomans & Peter Roessingh, 2024. "Decision Change: The First Step to System Change," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 16(6), pages 1-22, March.
    2. Michael Berkebile-Weinberg & Danielle Goldwert & Kimberly C. Doell & Jay J. Bavel & Madalina Vlasceanu, 2024. "The differential impact of climate interventions along the political divide in 60 countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, December.
    3. Johannes Brehm & Henri Gruhl, 2024. "Increase in concerns about climate change following climate strikes and civil disobedience in Germany," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-9, December.
    4. Andrés Navarro & Francisco J. Tapiador, 2023. "Twitch as a privileged locus to analyze young people’s attitudes in the climate change debate: a quantitative analysis," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 10(1), pages 1-13, December.
    5. Max Falkenberg & Fabiana Zollo & Walter Quattrociocchi & Jürgen Pfeffer & Andrea Baronchelli, 2024. "Patterns of partisan toxicity and engagement reveal the common structure of online political communication across countries," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-13, December.
    6. Fang, Ximeng & Innocenti, Stefania, 2023. "Increasing the acceptability of carbon taxation: The role of social norms and economic reasoning," INET Oxford Working Papers 2023-25, Institute for New Economic Thinking at the Oxford Martin School, University of Oxford.
    7. Tobia Spampatti & Ulf J. J. Hahnel & Evelina Trutnevyte & Tobias Brosch, 2024. "Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries," Nature Human Behaviour, Nature, vol. 8(2), pages 380-398, February.
    8. Kunhao Yang & Mengyuan Fu, 2024. "Polarized collaboration benefits knowledge production: empirical analyses of the mediating effect of co-production pattern in Wikipedia articles on climate change," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(3), pages 2677-2699, December.

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