Trust in Climate Scientists and Political Ideology: A 26-Country Analysis

Trust in climate scientists is critical for public awareness and engagement in mitigating climate change. Previous research has shown that right-wing political ideology is associated with lower trust in climate scientists, yet the predominant focus on Western countries raises questions about the universality of this relationship. Addressing this gap in our preregistered study, we analyze cross-sectional, secondary data across 26 countries from all inhabited continents (N = 10,646). While observing generally high trust, right-leaning individuals reported lower trust in climate scientists compared to those further to the left. However, we find considerable differences in this association across countries, with Anglophone countries showing the strongest association. Contrary to popularly motivated reasoning accounts, education did not moderate this relationship. The findings highlight the consistency of the political ideology-trust in climate scientists relationship across 26 countries but also underscore overlooked variations outside Western contexts.