Sampling and processing of climate change information and disinformation across three diverse countries

In the media, accurate climate information and climate disinformation often coexist and presentcompeting narratives about climate change. Whereas previous research documented detri-mental effects of disinformation on climate beliefs, little is known about how people seekclimate-related content and how this varies between cross-cultural contexts. In a preregisteredexperiment, we studied how individuals sequentially sample and process Pro- and Anti-climatestatements across 15 rounds. Participants from the U.S., China and Germany (N_total = 2, 226)freely sampled real-world climate related statements, retrieved from Twitter and validated inprevious studies. Overall, reading both Pro- and Anti-climate statements influenced climateconcern in all countries. Moreover, participants preferred statements that were better alignedwith their initial climate beliefs, and this confirmatory tendency intensified the more informationhad been sampled. Participants’ confirmatory evaluation (i.e., accepting aligned and rejectingopposing messages) increased over time. While climate concern was mostly stable, in theU.S., climate concern levels and box choices mutually reinforced each other, leading to greaterpolarization within the sample over the course of the experiment. The paradigm offers newperspectives on how people process and navigate conflicting narratives about climate change.