Climate Disbelievers Share More Conspiracy Theories Online
New research explores how climate change beliefs link to spreading conspiracy theories on social media.
A new study finds people who doubt climate change spread vastly more conspiracy theories on Twitter than those who believe in it.
Researchers wanted to know if people who disbelieve in climate change share more conspiracy theory terms online than people who believe it. They looked at a huge amount of data from Twitter, like a giant digital microscope for conversations.
The Study: Data and Methodology
The team gathered 38 million unique tweets and retweets from 7 million different users. This data was collected over two years, from August 2017 to September 2019.
They used special computer tools to figure out if users were "Believers" or "Disbelievers" based on hashtags they used, such as:
#ClimateHoax(for Disbelievers)#SavetheEarth(for Believers)
They also compiled a list of keywords to identify conspiracy theories within the tweets.
Key Findings
The results showed a clear pattern: those who disbelieve climate change shared many more conspiracy theories.
- "Disbelievers" posted 31,084 conspiracy-related tweets and 14,369 retweets.
- In contrast, "Believers" shared only 4,830 such tweets and 3,576 retweets.
Common Conspiracy Theories Identified:
- Among Disbelievers: "Geo-engineering" and "Chemtrails" were the most prevalent.
- Among Believers: "Flat Earth" theories were sometimes shared, often in a sarcastic context.
Implications for Climate Communication
The authors state:
“Conspiracy theories are a real threat to effective climate change messaging. Climate change messaging should not indiscriminately address all conspiracy theories but tackle the popular ones and alienate the unpopular ones.”
This suggests that simply ignoring these theories isn't enough; specific attention may be needed for the most common ones. The study implies policymakers might use this information to create more focused messages when talking about climate science.
Limitations & Next Steps
The study notes its findings mainly rely on Twitter and keyword searches, so it might not show the full picture of everyone's beliefs or all conspiracy theories.
Future research should explore:
- How to best communicate about climate change, considering these different belief systems.
- Specifically address the popular conspiracy theories identified.
Conclusion
Understanding who shares what online helps us grasp how ideas, even wild ones, spread in our digital world.
Reference:
Tyagi, A., & Carley, K. M. (2021). Climate Change Conspiracy Theories on Social Media. arXiv preprint arXiv:2107.03318.