Synthesizing a preliminary framework of the core constructs of climate change acceptance

Many research instruments exist that measure climate change acceptance; however, no current literature synthesis describes which facets of climate change are being measured. We used thematic analysis to identify and describe core constructs, or content areas, of climate change acceptance in existing items. We also enumerated the frequency of each construct and their co-occurrence in items, using social network analysis to further explore relationships among constructs. Our dataset included 523 articles containing 3089 items that measured climate change acceptance. Our thematic analysis of items identified 14 constructs of climate change acceptance that we organized into five categories. Constructs measuring the perceived consequences of climate change are measured most frequently by existing instruments. Further, we identified extensive conflation of constructs within individual items, which could hinder the findings of researchers using these items. Future research would benefit from instruments that use items measuring single constructs, development of new surveys to center and untangle these 14 constructs, and careful consideration of previous work using compound items. We hope that our preliminary content framework containing 14 constructs will aid researchers in their goals associated with measuring and understanding climate change acceptance.