Dataset: How do news about a heatwave affect public prioritization of climate change adaptation and mitigation behaviors?

These datasets contain survey data that was used to evaluate the effect of the exposure to heatwave news texts on people’s preference for climate mitigation and adaptation actions, as presented in the manuscript titled “How do news about a heatwave affect public prioritization of climate change adaptation and mitigation behaviors?”. Three versions of the dataset are available:

Original dataset: This version contains choice text as data points and includes all finished survey responses that passed the attention check questions (n=1209).

Original recoded dataset: This version was generated by recoding choice text into numerical values. The 'Income' variable, representing household income levels for both Canadian and US residents, was added by converting reported income ranges to a unified scale based on exchange rate equivalencies. The "Income_Canadians" and "Income_US" columns were subsequently removed to avoid repetitions.  

Final dataset: This version excludes observations from participants who completed the survey in under four minutes and those who selected the same response for every item within each matrix-style question (also known as straight-lining). Additionally, responses with missing values in questions regarding political views, gender, and household income, as well as responses where participants identified as non-binary or indicated that their gender was not listed, were omitted (see “Methods” for more details). Dependent variables have been added based on the original responses, including personal-level mitigation and adaptation likelihoods, personal-level mitigation preference, and both non-weighted and weighted collective-level mitigation preference. Furthermore, the dataset includes a 'Climate Change Concern' variable, derived through principal component analysis of thirteen variables expressing participants’ climate change attitudes and efficacy beliefs concerning climate actions. Variables not used in the subsequent data analysis were removed. Age, political views, education, and income columns were standardized. The final dataset was used for the data analysis presented in the manuscript.

The following variables/columns can be found across the three versions of the dataset:

Dependent variables:

Starting with “Personal_Mitigation”: participant’s self-reported likelihood of taking selected personal-level climate change mitigation actions

Starting with “Personal_Adaptation”: participant’s self-reported likelihood of taking selected personal-level climate change adaptation actions

Starting with “Collective_Mitigation”: participant’s ranking of the collective-level climate change mitigation initiatives

Starting with “Collective_Adaptation”: participant’s ranking of the collective-level climate change adaptation initiatives

Personal_Mitigation_Likelihood: personal-level mitigation likelihood (present only in the final dataset)

Personal_Adaptation_Likelihood: personal-level adaptation likelihood (present only in the final dataset)

Personal_Preference: personal-level mitigation preference (present only in the final dataset)

Collective_Preference_Unweighted: non-weighted collective-level mitigation preference (present only in the final dataset)

Collective_Preference_Weighted: weighted collective-level mitigation preference (present only in the final dataset)

Independent variables:

Group: group that the participant was assigned to as part of the experimental intervention

Distance: indicates whether the participant was assigned to read about a heatwave occurring in their community or a city 6,000 km away (for experimental groups only)

Severity: indicates whether the participant was prompted to read about a heatwave without or with the mention of associated causalities (for experimental groups only)

Covariates and supporting variables:

Gender: gender identity

Identity: ethnic and/or racial identity

Age: age

Political_Views: position on the liberal-conservative continuum

Education: highest level of education

Country: country of residence

Canada_Province: province or territory of residence (for Canadian participants only)

US_State: state of residence (for US participants only)

Duration_Residence: duration of residence in the current community

Income_Canadians: annual household income in Canadian dollars (for Canadian participants only)

Income_US: annual household income in US dollars (for US participants only)

Income: annual household income for both Canadian and US residents derived by converting reported income ranges to a unified scale based on exchange rate equivalencies

Efficacy_Mitigation_Personal: belief regarding the response efficacy of personal-level climate change mitigation actions

Efficacy_Mitigation_Collective: belief regarding the response efficacy of collective-level climate change mitigation actions

Efficacy_Adaptation_Personal: belief regarding the response efficacy of personal-level climate change adaptation actions

Efficacy_Adaptation_Collective: belief regarding the response efficacy of collective-level climate change adaptation

Climate_Change_Importance: perception of climate change as a personally important issue

Climate_Change_Worry: level of worry about climate change

Starting with “Climate_Risk”: beliefs regarding the degree of harm that climate change will cause to plants and animal species (Climate_Risk_Animals_Plants), future generations of people (Climate_Risk_Future_Generations), people in developing countries (Climate_Risk_Developing_Countries), people in participant’s country (Climate_Risk_Country), people in participant’s community (Climate_Risk_Community), and the participant personally (Climate_Risk_Personal)

Climate_Change_Onset_Time: belief regarding when climate change will start harming people in their community

Six_Americas_Segment: the Global Warming's Six Americas segment participant aligns with derived based on the Six Americas Short SurveY (SASSY) Group Scoring Tool

Climate_Change_Concern: variable derived through PCA of thirteen variables expressing participants' climate change attitudes and efficacy beliefs pertaining to climate actions (present only in the final dataset)

Survey_Duration_Seconds: The amount of time it took the respondent to complete the survey