(Press-News.org) Americans are more likely to discuss climate change with family and friends if they feel worried or at risk, perceive society as supportive of pro-climate behaviors or see global warming depicted in the media, according to a study published April 17, 2025 in the open-access journal PLOS Climate by Margaret Orr from George Mason University College of Humanities and Social Sciences in Fairfax, Virginia, and colleagues.
Curbing global warming’s effects requires systemic changes and government policies to reduce carbon emissions. Among individual climate actions (e.g., avoiding meat and limiting air travel), discussing climate change with others can foster wider collective support for climate policies. However, only one-third of Americans report discussing climate change with family and friends even occasionally, leading to the trend dubbed “climate silence.”
To learn more about what prompts climate-focused discussions, Orr and her colleagues analyzed a nationally representative, cross-sectional survey of 3,079 American adults distributed between 2020 and 2021. The survey included questions like, “How worried are you about global warming?” and, “About how often do you hear about global warming in the media?”, and all participants indicated how often they discuss global warming with family and friends.
Results identified four factors that may predict climate change discussions: worry, perceived risk, perceived social norms and exposure to media coverage about global warming. Perceived social norms — perceptions about how members of society think, feel and behave — emerged as the strongest predictor.
With these findings, the researchers aim to support climate conversations through several methods, including using news, entertainment and social media to popularize climate action; highlighting risk factors or causes of worry (and pairing those issues with solutions to prevent mental distress); and encouraging climate journalism.
The researchers note that this study measured the frequency of climate conversations, not their content; future research might explore how and why content may differ. Additionally, this study focused on familial and friendship relationships among American adults; future studies might expand into other relationship types — like neighbors or coworkers — and into vulnerable communities.
The authors add: “We found that the more worried people are about climate change, the more they hear about it in the media, and the more they perceive themselves to be at risk from the impacts of climate change, they are in turn more likely to talk about climate change with others.”
####
In your coverage please use this URL to provide access to the freely available article in PLOS Climate: https://plos.io/428RLrV
Citation: Orr M, Borth A, Kotcher J, Campbell E, Myers T, Maibach E, et al. (2025) Breaking the climate silence: Predictors of discussing global warming with family and friends. PLOS Clim 4(4): e0000538. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000538
Author countries: United States
Funding: This research is part of the Climate Change in the American Mind project jointly conducted by George Mason University and Yale University. This research was funded by the Schmidt Family Foundation (AL), the U.S. Energy Foundation (AL, EM), the MacArthur Foundation (AL), and the Grantham Foundation (AL). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of this manuscript. AL & SR received salary support from the above funders.
END
Breaking the American climate silence
Worry, social norms, exposure to media coverage may predict whether Americans discuss climate change
2025-04-17
ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:
Groundbreaking study uncovers how our brain learns
2025-04-17
How do we learn something new? How do tasks at a new job, lyrics to the latest hit song or directions to a friend’s house become encoded in our brains?
The broad answer is that our brains undergo adaptations to accommodate new information. In order to follow a new behavior or retain newly introduced information, the brain’s circuity undergoes change.
Such modifications are orchestrated across trillions of synapses — the connections between individual nerve cells, called neurons — where brain communication takes place. In an intricately coordinated ...
Sugar-mimicking molecule central to virulence of a common crop disease, study finds
2025-04-17
UNDER EMBARGO UNTIL 19:00 BST / 14:00 ET THURSDAY 17 APRIL 2025
Sugar-mimicking molecule central to virulence of a common crop disease, study finds
In plants, the space between cells is a key battleground during infection. To avoid recognition in this space, a strain of the bacterial tomato disease Pseudomonas syringae manipulates plants by producing a substance called glycosyrin. This substance suppresses the immune response and allows the bacteria to remain unnoticed.
A new study led by the University of Oxford has revealed ...
Surprise: Synapses on single neurons follow distinct rules during learning
2025-04-17
Shedding light on how the brain fine-tunes its wiring during learning, a new study finds that different dendritic segments of a single neuron follow distinct rules. The findings challenge the idea that neurons follow a single learning strategy and offer a new perspective on how the brain learns and adapts behavior. The brain's remarkable ability to learn and adapt is rooted in its capacity to modify the connections within its neural circuits – a phenomenon known as synaptic plasticity, in which specific synapses are altered to reshape neural activity and support behavioral change. Neurons, unlike most other cell types, are characterized by their intricate, ...
Fresh insights into why solid-state batteries fail could inform longer-lasting batteries
2025-04-17
Solid-state lithium batteries fail for the same reason over-bent paperclips snap – metal fatigue in the anode itself, according to a new study. The findings, which show that this fatigue follows well-documented mechanical behavior, provide a quantitative framework for predicting the cycle life of solid-state batteries, enabling new pathways for designing longer-lasting and safer energy storage systems. Solid-state lithium metal batteries (SSBs) promise both high energy and improved safety by combining a lithium ...
Curiosity rover identifies carbonates, providing evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars
2025-04-17
NASA’s Curiosity rover has uncovered a hidden chemical archive of ancient Mars’ atmosphere, which suggests that large amounts of carbon dioxide have been locked into the planet’s crust, according to a new study. The findings provide in situ evidence that a carbon cycle once operated on ancient Mars and offer new insights into the planet’s past climate. The Martian landscape shows clear signs that liquid water once flowed across its surface, which would have required ...
Up to 17% of global cropland contaminated by toxic heavy metal pollution, study estimates
2025-04-17
Based on data from over 1000 regional studies combined with machine learning, researchers estimate that as many as 1.4 billion people live in areas with soil dangerously polluted by heavy metals like arsenic, cadmium, cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, and lead. The study reveals a global risk, but also a previously unrecognized high-risk, metal-enriched zone in low-latitude Eurasia, in particular. The growth in demand for critical metals means toxic heavy metal pollution in soils is only likely to worsen. “We hope that the global soil pollution data presented in this report will ...
Curiosity rover finds large carbon deposits on Mars
2025-04-17
Research from NASA’s Curiosity rover has found evidence of a carbon cycle on ancient Mars, bringing scientists closer to an answer on whether the Red Planet was ever capable of supporting life.
Lead author Dr. Ben Tutolo, PhD, an associate professor with the Department of Earth, Energy and Environment in the Faculty of Science at the University of Calgary, is a participating scientist on the NASA Mars Science Laboratory Curiosity Rover team.
The team is working to understand climate transitions and habitability on ancient Mars as Curiosity explores Gale Crater.
The paper, published this week in the journal Science, reveals that ...
CHOP, Penn Medicine researchers use deep learning algorithm to pinpoint potential disease-causing variants in non-coding regions of the human genome
2025-04-17
Philadelphia, April 17, 2025 – Researchers from Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania (Penn Medicine) have successfully employed an algorithm to identify potential mutations which increase disease risk in the noncoding regions our DNA, which make up the vast majority of the human genome. The findings could serve as the basis for detecting disease-associated variants in a range of common diseases. The findings were published online today by the American Journal of Human Genetics.
While certain sections ...
Prevalence of obesity with and without confirmation of excess adiposity among US adults
2025-04-17
About The Study: Among U.S. adults ages 20 to 59, the prevalence of obesity by body mass index (BMI) only was nearly identical with the obesity prevalence after confirmation of excess adiposity. Approximately 98% of individuals identified as having obesity based on BMI had excess adiposity.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding author, Michael Fang, PhD, MHS, email mfang9@jh.edu.
To access the embargoed study: Visit our For The Media website at this link https://media.jamanetwork.com/
(doi:10.1001/jama.2025.2704)
Editor’s Note: Please ...
Population attributable fraction of incident dementia associated with hearing loss
2025-04-17
About The Study: The results of this cohort study suggest that treating hearing loss might delay dementia for a large number of older adults. Public health interventions targeting clinically significant audiometric hearing loss might have broad benefits for dementia prevention. Future research quantifying population attributable fractions should carefully consider which measures are used to define hearing loss, as self-reporting may underestimate hearing-associated dementia risk.
Corresponding Author: To contact the corresponding ...
LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:
Freeze-framing the cellular world to capture a fleeting moment of cellular activity
Computer hardware advance solves complex optimization problems
SOX2: a key player in prostate cancer progression and treatment resistance
Unlocking the potential of the non-coding genome for precision medicine
Chitinase-3-like protein 1: a novel biomarker for liver disease diagnosis and management
The Journal of Nuclear Medicine Ahead-of-Print Tip Sheet: August 22, 2025
Charisma Virtual Social Coaching named a finalist for Global Innovation Award
From the atmosphere to the abyss: Iron's role in Earth's climate history
US oil and gas air pollution causes unequal health impacts
Scientists reveal how microbes collaborate to consume potent greenhouse gas
UMass Amherst kinesiologist receives $2 million ‘outstanding researcher’ award from NIH
Wildfire peer review report for land Brandenburg, Germany, is now online
Wired by nature: Precision molecules for tomorrow's electronics
New study finds hidden body fat is linked to faster heart ageing
How a gift card could help speed up Alzheimer’s clinical research
Depression and anxiety symptoms in adults displaced by natural disasters
Cardiovascular health at the intersection of race and gender in Medicare fee for service
World’s first observation of the transverse Thomson effect
Powerful nodes for quantum networks
Mapping fat: How microfluidics and mass spectrometry reveal lipid landscapes in tiny worms
ATOX1 promotes hepatocellular carcinoma carcinogenesis via activation of the c-Myb/PI3K/AKT signaling pathway
Colibactin-producing E. coli linked to higher colorectal cancer risk in FAP patients
Animal protein not linked to higher mortality risk, study finds
Satellite insights into eutrophication trends on the Qinghai–Tibet plateau
Researchers develop an innovative method for large-scale analysis of metabolites in biological samples
Asteroid Bennu is a time capsule of materials bearing witness to its origin and transformation over billions of years
New AI model can help extend life and increase safety of electric vehicle batteries
Wildfires can raise local death rate by 67%, shows study on 2023 Hawaiʻi fires
Yogurt and hot spring bathing show a promising combination for gut health
Study explains how lymphoma rewires human genome
[Press-News.org] Breaking the American climate silenceWorry, social norms, exposure to media coverage may predict whether Americans discuss climate change