ArticleNature communications2021
Ten-year panel data confirm generation gap but climate beliefs increase at similar rates across ages.
Article in Nature communications, 2021. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 24 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
24 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Are we attending to climate change? A systematic review of the cognitive science literature.Cognitive processing · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- Sexual prejudice declined across generational cohorts and genders: A cohort sequential latent growth curve model from 2014 to 2024.The British journal of social psychology · 2026Article
- Attitudes toward climate change risk among older people: new evidence from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing.The journals of gerontology. Series B, Psychological sciences and social sciences · 2026Article
- Green radiotherapy: aitro survey on sustainability awareness among Italian radiation therapists.Technical innovations & patient support in radiation oncology · 2026Article
- Actively distancing from climate radicals improves public support for moderate climate activists.Communications psychology · 2026Article
- Perceived Relative Deprivation Across the Adult Lifespan: An Examination of Aging and Cohort Effects.Personality & social psychology bulletin · 2025Article
- Reported Behavioral Patterns and Concern Surrounding Well Water Testing for Arsenic in Midwestern Homeowners with Children.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Perceptions of Endocrine Clinicians Regarding Climate Change and Health.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2025Article
- Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the climate anxiety scale in Spanish-speaking adolescents.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Collapse, social tipping dynamics, and framing climate change.Politics philosophy & economics · 2024Article
- Increase in concerns about climate change following climate strikes and civil disobedience in Germany.Nature communications · 2024Article
- Climate change profiles of New Zealanders over time: a one-year latent transition analysis of climate change beliefs and concern.Journal of the Royal Society of New Zealand · 2024Article
- Factors affecting risk perception of COVID-19: differences by age and gender.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
- Knowledge, attitudes, and perception of air pollution in Ireland.Public health in practice (Oxford, England) · 2023Article
- Introduction and behavioral validation of the climate change distress and impairment scale.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Age and mental health moderate the association between environmental concern (EC) and smoking frequency: smoking as a polluting behavior.Frontiers in public health · 2023Article
- Thinking twice: examining gender differences in repetitive negative thinking across the adult lifespan.Frontiers in psychology · 2023Article
- The Perceived Contribution of Older People to Climate Change Impact, Mitigation, and Adaptation: Measurement Development and Validation.Innovation in aging · 2023Article
- Political leadership has limited impact on fossil fuel taxes and subsidies.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Accumulating evidence indicates that climate change awareness and concern has increased globally, but commentators suggest a climate change generation gap whereby younger people care more about climate change than older people. Here we use a decade of panel data from 56,513 New Zealanders to test whether belief that "Climate change is real" and "Climate change is caused by humans" increased over the 2009-2018 period; and whether changes are uniform across 12 five-year birth cohorts spanning those born from 1936 to 1995. Results confirm a generation gap in mean (intercept) climate change beliefs but not in over-time increase (slope). The generation gap occurs because older cohorts started from a lower initial belief level (circa 2009), but all age cohorts increased their belief level at a similar rate over the last decade; and these results were not qualified by respondents' gender. The findings offer hope for collective action that bridges efforts across generations.
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.