Efficacy Foundations for Risk Communication: How People Think About Reducing the Risks of Climate Change

Believing action to reduce the risks of climate change is both possible (self‐efficacy) and effective (response efficacy) is essential to motivate and sustain risk mitigation efforts, according to current risk communication theory. Although the public recognizes the dangers of climate change, and is deluged with lists of possible mitigative actions, little is known about public efficacy beliefs in the context of climate change. Prior efficacy studies rely on conflicting constructs and measures of efficacy, and links between efficacy and risk management actions are muddled. As a result, much remains to learn about how laypersons think about the ease and effectiveness of potential mitigative actions. To bring clarity and inform risk communication and management efforts, we investigate how people think about efficacy in the context of climate change risk management by analyzing unprompted and prompted beliefs from two national surveys (N = 405, N = 1,820). In general, respondents distinguish little between effective and ineffective climate strategies. While many respondents appreciate that reducing fossil fuel use is an effective risk mitigation strategy, overall assessments reflect persistent misconceptions about climate change causes, and uncertainties about the effectiveness of risk mitigation strategies. Our findings suggest targeting climate change risk communication and management strategies to (1) address gaps in people's existing mental models of climate action, (2) leverage existing public understanding of both potentially effective mitigation strategies and the collective action dilemma at the heart of climate change action, and (3) take into account ideologically driven reactions to behavior change and government action framed as climate action.     

Efficacy,Action, and Support for Reducing Climate Change Risks

A growing body of research demonstrates that believing action to reduce the risks of climate change is both possible (self‐efficacy) and effective (response efficacy) is essential to motivate and sustain risk mitigation efforts. Despite this potentially critical role of efficacy beliefs, measures and their use vary wildly in climate change risk perception and communication research, making it hard to compare and learn from efficacy studies. To address this problem and advance our understanding of efficacy beliefs, this article makes three contributions. First, we present a theoretically motivated approach to measuring climate change mitigation efficacy, in light of diverse proposed, perceived, and previously researched strategies. Second, we test this in two national survey samples (Amazon's Mechanical Turk N = 405, GfK Knowledge Panel N = 1,820), demonstrating largely coherent beliefs by level of action and discrimination between types of efficacy. Four additive efficacy scales emerge: personal self‐efficacy, personal response efficacy, government and collective self‐efficacy, and government and collective response efficacy. Third, we employ the resulting efficacy scales in mediation models to test how well efficacy beliefs predict climate change policy support, controlling for specific knowledge, risk perceptions, and ideology, and allowing for mediation by concern. Concern fully mediates the relatively strong effects of perceived risk on policy support, but only partly mediates efficacy beliefs. Stronger government and collective response efficacy beliefs and personal self‐efficacy beliefs are both directly and indirectly associated with greater support for reducing the risks of climate change, even after controlling for ideology and causal beliefs about climate change.     

冷战后的中美政治安全关系

冷战结束十年以来 ,美国的对华政策依然摇摆不定。之所以如此 ,是因为十年来美国视中国为敌还是为友 ,或者非敌非友 ,至今还未定性。而美国难于在其国际政治安全战略中给中国定性的原因 ,则与以下的三个层次密切相关 ,即美国的国内政治层次、中美关系的发展层次和全球层次。     

不动产物权变动登记外的公示方式

按现有立法,不动产物权变动的公示方式均是登记。但立法上却有不登记的例外,实践中也有这种需要。如果法律上能够明确,在一定条件下,不动产的物权变动可以以登记外的公示方式存在,它对于保障交易安全、提高交易效率具有较强的现实意义。为了减少负面效应——实施这种公示方式可能出现的问题,如二重买卖、重复抵押等,可采取相应的措施予以解决。     

自我效度对单词记忆的影响

采用班杜拉的自我效度理论,在大量实证调查的基础上,考察其与单词记忆的关系,为英语词汇教学提供启示.研究表明,较之其它认知或情感因素,自我效度能对学生的学习动机、目标及结果作出更准确的预测和解释.自我效度强的学生在记忆的规律性、记忆方法的技巧性及自我调控的科学性上都要明显优于效度弱的学生.     

谈激发大学生政治理论课的学习兴趣

政治理论课是大学生必修的一门课程,它不仅向学生讲授马克思主义的理论知识,还要帮助学生树立科学的世界观、人生观和价值观。政治理论课的教学质量如何,不仅影响到每个学生的未来,而且关系到国家的前途。所以我们要大力改进课堂教学,用教学的高质量来培养学生的高素质。如今大学生普遍不喜欢上政治理论课,极大地影响该课程的教学效果,更难以实现政治理论课的智育和德育双重功能。我们认为,针对目前大学政治理论课的低效性现状,可以通过激发学生的学习兴趣来提高政治理论课的教学效果。     

国家权力与城市空间:当代中国城市基层社会治理变革

确立和调整城市治理的空间策略是现代国家的重要任务。改革前中国的单位体制,使国家能够依靠单位实现“单元分隔”式的治理模式。改革以来,这种整齐划一的空间战略无法适应新的城市社会变迁。在城市社区管理体制改革中,出现了三种不同的国家空间战略,即“政党国家”,“行政国家”和“社会化国家”模式。当前城市社区改革的困难和复杂性体现了以上三种空间战略的对立和冲突。     

无因管理问题的研究

无因管理作为民法法律之债的发生依据之一,应当根据社会的发展赋予其新的价值。本文试从无因管理的社会意义和法律性质、成立条件、效力、类型化及类型化无因管理的法律效果等方面就无因管理的有关问题进行了研究。     

Social identities and political cleavages: the role of political context

Summary. Using a novel method, the paper investigates the influence of social group identities on attitudes and on voting in a variety of political contexts. Examining the major regions of Britain, Canada and the USA, we find considerable national and regional diversity in the nature of social cleavages. For example, social class and race had widely different effects across societies, but within societies their effects on attitudes and on voting were very similar. However, despite that, age and religion had a similar effect on attitudes across societies; the effects on voting varied considerably. The significant within-country differences underline the importance of using region, rather than country, as the unit of analysis. More importantly, these results highlight the role of political context, especially competing cleavages and the structure of party competition, in the establishment of politically relevant social cleavages.