Political trust and public support for climate policy in Europe: the role of perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity

While previous studies on the relationship between political trust and support for climate policy have focused on the evaluative component of trust, namely whether politicians and the political system can be trusted or not, less is known about the role of different dimensions of trustworthiness that...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Environmental Research Communications 2024, Vol.6 (9), p.95013
Main Authors: Kulin, Joakim, Johansson Sevä, Ingemar, Fairbrother, Malcolm
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
climate action
Climate change communication
Climate policy
climate policy support
competence
Corruption
Europe
Evaluation
Integrity
Policies
political trust
Politicians
Politics
sociologi
Sociology
Trust
Trustworthiness
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Summary:While previous studies on the relationship between political trust and support for climate policy have focused on the evaluative component of trust, namely whether politicians and the political system can be trusted or not, less is known about the role of different dimensions of trustworthiness that underlie such evaluations. In this study, we examine how perceptions about politicians’ competence and integrity, two central dimensions of trustworthiness, are related to public support for climate policies. Using survey data from four European countries (Sweden, Germany, Spain, and Poland), we find that people who think that politicians are competent are generally more likely to support climate policy. In contrast, we do not find such a relationship between integrity perceptions (e.g., corruption) and policy attitudes. These findings are consistent across national contexts and hold even when alternating the measures capturing competence and integrity perceptions. To bolster public support for climate policies, climate communication should prioritize addressing public concerns regarding politicians’ competence in designing sound climate policies, rather than alleviating concerns about their integrity, such as fears of corruption.
ISSN:2515-7620
2515-7620
DOI:10.1088/2515-7620/ad5ccf