Climate change and opinion dynamics models: Linking individual, social, and institutional level changes

Opinion dynamics models are increasingly used to understand changes in opinions, behaviors, and policy in the context of climate change. We review recent research that demonstrates how these models enable the linkages between individual, social, institutional, and biophysical factors to explain when and how social change emerges over time and what its impact might be on emissions and the climate system. We focus on applications of opinion dynamics models to climate change and describe how factors interact in those models to create feedback loops that reinforce or dampen change. We demonstrate how these models reveal the dynamics of consensus or polarization in climate opinions, the evolution of sustainability technologies and policies, and when and how interventions or negotiations related to climate change are likely to succeed or fail.