www.ijsc-online.org | IJSC 3 (2008): 37-95

THE MEASUREMENT OF KEY BEHAVIORAL SCIENCE CONSTRUCTS IN CLIMATE CHANGE RESEARCH

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Connie Roser-Renouf, Matthew C. Nisbet

Abstract: The growth and integration of social science research on climate change will be facilitated by careful, consistent measurement of its central constructs. In this paper, the relevant psycho-social literature is reviewed, with an eye toward enhancing the quality of measurement. We find that risk perception, a focus of much climate change research, has multiple dimensions that may drive behavior in different ways. Values and norms have been assessed by several indices that overlap conceptually, and study findings could be integrated if these overlaps were clarified and tested. Climate change knowledge has numerous components, only some of may be essential in the formation of risk perceptions and behavior. Efficacy has received little attention by survey researchers, but promises to help explain behaviors and policy preferences. Climate-relevant behaviors are highly complex variables that will require further explication before we fully understand how they may best be measured. Policy preferences have been asked in terms of trade-offs between action and economic impacts, or in terms of specific regulations or tax incentives.

Keywords: measurement, reliability, validity