This working paper examines the impact of Climategate on public perceptions of climate change and climate scientists, drawing on our national survey conducted in December, 2009 and January, 2010. In brief, we found that Climategate had a significant negative effect on public beliefs in global warming and trust in scientists. The loss of trust in scientists, however, appears to have been primarily among individuals with a strongly individualistic worldview or politically conservative ideology. Nonetheless, we found that Americans overall continued to trust scientists more than any other source of information about global warming.
Climategate, Public Opinion, and the Loss of Trust
