Understanding climate change conspiracy beliefs: A comparative outlook

Are climate change conspiracy theories widespread across the world, or do we find climate change conspiracy beliefs (CBs) more so in some countries than in others? This research note explores the prevalence of CBs that identify climate change as a hoax across eight geographically and culturally diverse countries. Using original data, we found that climate change CBs are prevalent around the world, with some variations across countries. Our results indicate that political ideology, populist attitudes, age, and distrust of scientists primarily explain climate change conspiracy beliefs. We found cross-national heterogeneity in the importance of age and political ideology as determinants of such beliefs.