IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jijerp/v19y2022i24p17038-d1007495.html

Believing in or Denying Climate Change for Questionable Reasons: Generic Conspiracist Beliefs, Personality, and Climate Change Perceptions of Romanian University Students

Author

Listed:
  • Ștefan Boncu

    (Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania)

  • Oara Prundeanu

    (Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania)

  • Andrei Corneliu Holman

    (Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania)

  • Simona Andreea Popușoi

    (Psychology Department, Faculty of Psychology and Educational Science, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași, 700506 Iași, Romania)

Abstract

People’s perceptions of climate change represent a growing concern, especially when these perceptions entail the denial of climate change. Past studies have highlighted the detrimental role of conspiracist beliefs concerning climate change regarding people’s perceptions on this matter. However, the effects of generic conspiracy beliefs and the different types of beliefs determining skepticism about climate change, as well as that of an individual’s personality, are still an open area of inquiry. Our cross-sectional study (N = 842) explored the relationships between the degree to which people hold different generic conspiracy beliefs, their personality characteristics (as defined within the Big Five taxonomy), and climate change beliefs (i.e., in its occurrence and anthropogenic causation). Results indicated common predictors of these dimensions of climate change beliefs, specifically three of the five types of generic conspiracy beliefs, extraversion, agreeability, and intellect/imagination as personality factors. While conspiracy beliefs related to personal well-being emerged as related to climate change skepticism, those in government malfeasance and information control were found to be associated with more acceptance of climate change and its anthropogenic causation. These findings reveal a mixed pattern of relationships between different conspiracist beliefs and climate change perceptions and suggest the complex psychological and ideological underpinnings of the attitudes towards climate change.

Suggested Citation

  • Ștefan Boncu & Oara Prundeanu & Andrei Corneliu Holman & Simona Andreea Popușoi, 2022. "Believing in or Denying Climate Change for Questionable Reasons: Generic Conspiracist Beliefs, Personality, and Climate Change Perceptions of Romanian University Students," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(24), pages 1-13, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:17038-:d:1007495
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/17038/pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/24/17038/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Adam M. Enders & Steven M. Smallpage, 2019. "Who Are Conspiracy Theorists? A Comprehensive Approach to Explaining Conspiracy Beliefs," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 100(6), pages 2017-2032, October.
    2. Tai-Yi Yu & Tai-Kuei Yu, 2017. "The Moderating Effects of Students’ Personality Traits on Pro-Environmental Behavioral Intentions in Response to Climate Change," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 14(12), pages 1-20, November.
    3. Gordon Pennycook & James Allan Cheyne & Nathaniel Barr & Derek J. Koehler & Jonathan A. Fugelsang, 2015. "On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound bullshit," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 10(6), pages 549-563, November.
    4. Tien Ming Lee & Ezra M. Markowitz & Peter D. Howe & Chia-Ying Ko & Anthony A. Leiserowitz, 2015. "Predictors of public climate change awareness and risk perception around the world," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(11), pages 1014-1020, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Muhammed Kavak & Ipek Itir Can, 2025. "Post-Pandemic Ecotourism Intentions and Climate Change Perceptions: The Role of Personality Domains," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(16), pages 1-27, August.
    2. Scott Pruysers & Tobias Schminke & Gala Palavicini, 2025. "Personality traits and climate skepticism: evidence from Canada," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(3), pages 1-18, March.
    3. Fuad Hatibovic & José Manuel Gaete & Juan Sandoval & Ximena Faúndez & María Paz Godoy & Paola Ilabaca, 2025. "“What Do Believers Believe in? Beliefs, Emotions, and Willingness to Engage in Collective Action on Climate Change Among Residents of a Chilean Region Affected”," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 17(15), pages 1-20, July.
    4. Ömer Gökhan Ulum & Menşure Alkış Küçükaydın, 2025. "Teacher Candidates with Biospheric Value, Farming and Openness Personality Type are Worried About Climate Change," SAGE Open, , vol. 15(2), pages 21582440251, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Abinash Bhattachan & Matthew D. Jurjonas & Priscilla R. Morris & Paul J. Taillie & Lindsey S. Smart & Ryan E. Emanuel & Erin L. Seekamp, 2019. "Linking residential saltwater intrusion risk perceptions to physical exposure of climate change impacts in rural coastal communities of North Carolina," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 97(3), pages 1277-1295, July.
    2. Guglielmo Zappalà, 2023. "Drought Exposure and Accuracy: Motivated Reasoning in Climate Change Beliefs," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 85(3), pages 649-672, August.
    3. A. K. Enamul Haque & Heman D. Lohano & Pranab Mukhopadhyay & Mani Nepal & Fathimath Shafeeqa & Shamen P. Vidanage, 2019. "NDC pledges of South Asia: are the stakeholders onboard?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(2), pages 237-244, July.
    4. Yin, Weijun & Liu, Bing & Yao, Dingjun & Chen, Gang, 2025. "Property insurance demand in response to climate risk: The role of green finance, economic policy uncertainty, and non-linearity," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 83(C).
    5. Anthony Evans & Willem Sleegers & Žan Mlakar, 2020. "Individual differences in receptivity to scientific bullshit," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 15(3), pages 401-412, May.
    6. Can Askan Mavi & Nicolas Quérou, 2020. "Common pool resource management and risk perceptions," DEM Discussion Paper Series 20-25, Department of Economics at the University of Luxembourg.
    7. Liang-Chu Ho & Yu-Hsien Sung & Chia-Chun Wu & Pei-Shan Lee & Wen-Bin Chiou, 2020. "Envisaging Mitigation Action Can Induce Lower Discounting toward Future Environmental Gains and Promote Pro-Environmental Behavior," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(21), pages 1-12, November.
    8. Grechyna, Daryna, 2025. "Raising awareness of climate change: Nature, activists, politicians?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    9. Douenne, Thomas & Fabre, Adrien, 2020. "French attitudes on climate change, carbon taxation and other climate policies," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    10. Alexander C. Walker & Martin Harry Turpin & Jennifer A. Stolz & Jonathan A. Fugelsang & Derek J. Koehler, 2019. "Finding meaning in the clouds: Illusory pattern perception predicts receptivity to pseudo-profound bullshit," Judgment and Decision Making, Society for Judgment and Decision Making, vol. 14(2), pages 109-119, March.
    11. Andrew Bieler & Randolph Haluza-Delay & Ann Dale & Marcia Mckenzie, 2017. "A National Overview of Climate Change Education Policy: Policy Coherence between Subnational Climate and Education Policies in Canada (K-12)," Journal of Education for Sustainable Development, , vol. 11(2), pages 63-85, September.
    12. Shobande, Olatunji A. & Asongu, Simplice A., 2022. "The Critical Role of Education and ICT in Promoting Environmental Sustainability in Eastern and Southern Africa: A Panel VAR Approach," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 176(C).
    13. Theiss Bendixen, 2020. "How cultural evolution can inform the science of science communication—and vice versa," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, December.
    14. Lars Mewes & Leonie Tuitjer & Peter Dirksmeier, 2024. "Exploring the variances of climate change opinions in Germany at a fine-grained local scale," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-14, December.
    15. Zeynep Altinay & Eric Rittmeyer & Lauren L. Morris & Margaret A. Reams, 2021. "Public risk salience of sea level rise in Louisiana, United States," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 11(4), pages 523-536, December.
    16. Sam Crawley & Hilde Coffé & Ralph Chapman, 2022. "Climate Belief and Issue Salience: Comparing Two Dimensions of Public Opinion on Climate Change in the EU," Social Indicators Research: An International and Interdisciplinary Journal for Quality-of-Life Measurement, Springer, vol. 162(1), pages 307-325, July.
    17. Adelmann, Julia & Burzlaff, Marion & Fuchs, Lina & Hortig, Carolin & Kemmer, Janine & Kretschmer, Katja & Neuhold, Tina & Schilling, Lidia, 2025. "Impulse für die Arbeitswelt von morgen: Vertrauen, Veränderung & Nachhaltigkeit," iwp Schriftenreihe, FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, iwp Institut für Wirtschaftspsychologie, volume 22, number 324148 edited by FOM Hochschule für Oekonomie & Management, iwp Institut für Wirtschaftspsychologie.
    18. Zhiyu Li & Zhen Sun & Chuqi Wang, 2026. "Understanding the adaptive behaviors of farmers on the Qinghai-Tibetan Plateau: a mixed-methods study on the mediating role of risk perception and the moderating effects of climate change benefits and self-efficacy," Humanities and Social Sciences Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 13(1), pages 1-15, December.
    19. Giandomenico Domenico & Annamaria Tuan & Marco Visentin, 2021. "Linguistic drivers of misinformation diffusion on social media during the COVID-19 pandemic," Italian Journal of Marketing, Springer, vol. 2021(4), pages 351-369, December.
    20. Mona Nabil Demaidi & Khaled Al-Sahili, 2021. "Integrating SDGs in Higher Education—Case of Climate Change Awareness and Gender Equality in a Developing Country According to RMEI-TARGET Strategy," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(6), pages 1-21, March.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:19:y:2022:i:24:p:17038-:d:1007495. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager The email address of this maintainer does not seem to be valid anymore. Please ask MDPI Indexing Manager to update the entry or send us the correct address (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.