Feeling is NOT Mutual: Political Discussion, Science, and Environmental Attitudes by Party Affiliation

ABSTRACT In this paper, we extend the work that has been done examining the influence of interpersonal communication on people’s trust in scientists and environmentalists and whether these levels of trust are associated with support for specific science and environmental policies. Previous work has shown that discussions with others can influence perceptions of important issues such as attitudes about climate change. Our study extends this line of inquiry by showing that the relationship between political discussion and evaluations of actors in society is moderated by party identification. We also find that evaluations of scientists and environmentalists is associated with support for science and environmental policies. Moreover, we assess whether these associations vary over time. In the end, our findings provide further evidence that interpersonal communication can influence important science and environmentally related outcomes. Moreover, it shows that these relationships could change over the course of time.