Global Warming’s Six Americas

The report categorizes the U.S. population into six groups based on their attitudes toward global warming: Alarmed, Concerned, Cautious, Disengaged, Doubtful, and Dismissive. In March 2016, 45% of Americans were in the most engaged groups (Alarmed and Concerned), while 21% were in the skeptical groups (Doubtful and Dismissive). The Alarmed group is the most likely to prioritize climate change in voting decisions and participate in climate action campaigns, whereas the Dismissive group generally views the issue as a hoax and may prefer candidates who oppose climate action.

• As of March 2016, 45% of Americans belonged to the most engaged segments (Alarmed and Concerned), 34% to the middle segments (Cautious and Disengaged), and 21% to the skeptical segments (Doubtful and Dismissive). The Alarmed segment grew by five percentage points over the previous year.
• Climate change is a primary voting priority only for the Alarmed group, with over 80% stating that global warming, environmental protection, and clean energy are very or extremely important to their decision. For other segments, global warming is the least important of 23 assessed issues.
• Voting preferences in the 2016 election were strongly linked to these segments: 64% of the Alarmed preferred Hillary Clinton, while 61% of the Dismissive preferred Donald Trump.
• Support for climate action influences voting differently across groups: the Alarmed and Concerned are more likely to vote for candidates who support action, while 54% of the Dismissive are less likely to vote for such candidates.
• The Alarmed group shows the highest willingness to engage in activism, with 32% either currently participating in or definitely willing to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action on global warming.

APA

Leiserowitz, A., Feinberg, G., Rosenthal, S., Maibach, E., & Roser-Renouf, C. (2016). Global Warming’s Six Americas. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/six-americas-2016-election/

Chicago

Leiserowitz, Anthony, Geoff Feinberg, Seth Rosenthal, Edward Maibach, and Connie Roser-Renouf. Global Warming’s Six Americas. Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2016. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/six-americas-2016-election/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Leiserowitz |first1=Anthony |last2=Feinberg |first2=Geoff |last3=Rosenthal |first3=Seth |last4=Maibach |first4=Edward |last5=Roser-Renouf |first5=Connie |title=Global Warming’s Six Americas |publisher=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |date=12 July 2016 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/six-americas-2016-election/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{leiserowitz2016global, author = {Leiserowitz, Anthony and Feinberg, Geoff and Rosenthal, Seth and Maibach, Edward and Roser-Renouf, Connie}, title = {{Global Warming’s Six Americas}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2016}, month = jul, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/six-americas-2016-election/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }