Basic Rule of Thumb #1: if the person you are trying to persuade doesn’t like or trust you, continuing to insist that catastrophic climate change will definitely happen without major self-sacrifice, when that can’t be known for sure, basically erodes trust even further. By “you”, I mean the category to which you have been assigned.  For many climate change skeptics, that would be “environmental activist” or “climate change alarmist”.

Basic Rule of Thumb #2: don’t assume all climate change skeptics are the same. According to various surveys, few skeptics are “strong skeptics” – those convinced it’s all a bunch of hogwash and don’t care what the “consensus” is. More are “lukewarmers” or moderate skeptics, who take exception to some part of the message: how much the climate is likely to change, various inadequacies of climate change models, or what needs to be done to mitigate and/or adapt to climate change.

Basic Rule of Thumb #3: don’t assume climate change skeptics are simply ignorant. Skeptics are about as knowledgeable as those who accept the “consensus”. Interestingly, many skeptics report they used to be more concerned about climate change but became skeptical upon further study.

Basic Rule of Thumb #4: just because strong emotions are involved doesn’t mean there isn’t a valid point behind the emotions. Try to understand and respect that point. You can still stand your ground.

References:

Bashir, N. Y., Lockwood, P., Chasteen, A. L., Nadolny, D., & Noyes, I. (2013). The ironic impact of activists: Negative stereotypes reduce social change influence. European Journal of Social Psychology, 43, 614–626. doi:10.1002/ejsp.1983 [CrossRef], [Web of Science ®]

Matthews, Paul (2015) Why Are People Skeptical about Climate Change? Some Insights from Blog Comments, Environmental Communication , 9:2, 153-168, DOI: 10.1080/17524032.2014.999694 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/17524032.2014.999694

Election 2016: Chapter 2: Climate Change and Energy Issues(“Views about climate change are roughly the same regardless of level of science knowledge. There are no differences in views between those with a degree in a scientific field and those with training in other fields.” )  http://www.pewinternet.org/2015/07/01/chapter-2-climate-change-and-energy-issues/