Date of Award
Spring 2017
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Major
Public Policy & Law
First Advisor
Rachel Moskowitz
Second Advisor
Adrienne Fulco
Abstract
Many Americans do not believe in the existence of climate change, and even those who believe climate change exists often seriously underestimate its potential harms as predicted by the world's best scientific organizations. Most political scholars agree that much higher consensus among American citizens is necessary to create necessary policy reform to mitigate climate change, both in the US and at large. However, there are also organizations who actively wish to deter and decrease belief in climate change among US citizens, not for the sake of scientific skepticism, but for personal benefit from preventing policy reform. This text examines what these institutions are, how they manipulate psychological variables among climate deniers to maximize the salience of their message, and how we may best reduce (and even reverse) these messages' impacts.
Recommended Citation
Mickolas, David A., "Dismantling the Climate Denial Machine: Theory and Methods". Senior Theses, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 2017.
Trinity College Digital Repository, https://digitalrepository.trincoll.edu/theses/665
Included in
American Politics Commons, Applied Behavior Analysis Commons, Energy Policy Commons, Environmental Studies Commons, Policy Design, Analysis, and Evaluation Commons, Public Policy Commons, Science and Technology Policy Commons, Social Psychology Commons
Comments
Senior thesis completed at Trinity College, Hartford Connecticut for the degree of Bachelor of Arts in Public Policy and law.