"Changing beliefs about climate change in the US between 2001 and 2010. The charts shows the percentage of Americans who believe that global warming has already begun according to the party they identify themselves with.
These findings are consistent with ‘party sorting’ theory —"the predominant political science and sociological explanation of"political polarization in the general public."Party sorting"is a top-down process wherein the more visible and active members of a"party — ‘ideological elites’ such as activists, pundits, political lobbyists or politicians — establish views on an issue and then communicate the accepted party positions to citizens. Read on
Published in: Nature Climate Change, 1(4): 195-196 (July 2011), by Andrew J. Hoffman
