Climate Change in the Mind of a College Student
A Cross-Sectional Study on Climate Change Perceptions at the University of Oklahoma
Benjamin Ignac, Aparna Bamzai, and Dr. Renee McPherson – Department of Geography and Environmental Sustainability
University of Oklahoma
RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND METHOD
3.Spatial
variations
in climate change
perception
 Research Topic: Climate change perception among students at OU during Fall 2015
 Research Questions: (1) How do the sampled students score compared to the American average? (2)
Are there patterns or correlations between the individuals’ attitude towards climate change and their
demographic characteristics (gender, class, hometown, religious and political affiliation)? (3) Are there
any differences in results among the courses of the sampled students?
 Research Methods: A nationwide survey (Six Americas) in 2014 by Yale and George Mason Universities
highlights six distinct segments of the US adult population based on their perception of climate change.
These segments are the Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful and Dismissive (RoserRenouf et al., 2014). I used the same survey instrument as the “Six Americas” survey by, so I can
directly compare my sample with national average. With the consent of the professors and the
students, I surveyed over 515 college students enrolled in sections of the four largest intro-level
general education courses offered in the Fall 2015 semester by the College of Atmospheric and
Geographic Sciences at the University of Oklahoma. The collected data was further analyzed in SPSS,
Microsoft Excel, and ArcGIS.
The six OU students of climate change
Segment
Count
General information about the sample
Count
Source: environment.yale.edu
Box 1. My sample had a much higher percentage
of respondents stating that they believe climate
change is happening in comparison to the
national (63%) and state (57%) responses. 91.3%
lean towards believing climate change is
happening whereas only 6% deny it. the sample
size (n=515) is adequate for determining
population statistics.
Box 3. The choropleth maps show the
count of OU participants by their origin
state and country. The data is further
aggregated by segments to show spatial
variations across US states and the
US/world variation. OU international
students seem to lean more towards
the ‘alarmed’ side of the spectrum
compared to their US peers.
Segmentation by urban and rural setting, class, gender
and political party
Box 5. These bubble graphs show how each of the six segments scores based on certain
opinions related to climate change. The distribution of the segments in the lowest two graphs
also confirms the relationship between political and religious affiliation and climate change
perception.
USA Segmentation vs OU Segmentation
USA
Segmentation
October 2014
(n=1272)
CONCLUSIONS
The “Six Americas” survey by the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication was taken by
515 OU students at the beginning of the Fall 2015 semester. The results show that the average
college student is more concerned about climate change than the American and Oklahoman
average. Furthermore, there are strong relationships between climate change perceptions and
political affiliation, religiousness, and urban or rural settings. Respondents who are republican,
religious, or grew up in a rural setting tend to be generally less concerned about climate
change than democrats, students who are less religious, or students who grew up in a rural
setting. International students at OU seem in average more concerned compared to their US
peers. The class and gender of the student do not seem to have a significant impact on climate
change perception.
OU
Segmentation
August 2015
(n=515)
Box 2. The proportional bubble diagrams compare the segmentation of the sampled respondents from
the nationwide survey (above) with the OU sample (below). As can be seen, the OU sample has a larger
segment of concerned and cautious people but a smaller segment of alarmed, disengaged, doubtful and
dismissive people in regard to climate change.
Box 4. The bar graphs above split the data segmentation by certain variables that are of interest when trying to understand climate
change perception. As we can see there is a trend that participants from urban settings are more alarmed compared to their peers
from rural settings. The political affiliation seem to have a big influence on climate change perception. Students associated with the
republican party are less alarmed than students of the democratic party.
Acknowledgements:
My thanks go to all OU professors and students who allowed me to conduct my research in
their classes. I would also like to thank Dr. Renee McPherson and Aparna Bamzai for helping me
throughout this research project. Thank you very much for your guidance and support.