Climate change worry, personal experience of extreme rainfall and heatwave, and attribution to climate change

This dataset was used in a study tested the relationships between personal experiences of climate change and worry, using both objective exposure and subjective experience data relating to extreme heatwaves and rainfall in Australia. It also considered how attribution of the events to climate change influenced these relationships. We found that the subjective attribution of the extreme events to climate change was the strongest predictor of climate change worry, suggesting that cognitive processes such as motivated reasoning may be a critical factor in the interpretation of these events. While the experience of extreme weather events may not directly drive climate change worry, these extreme events may offer important reinforcing instances for engaging concerned citizens in climate policy debates.