Collective Political Efficacy

The analysis examines how Americans' confidence in their collective ability to affect federal climate policy has evolved, noting a slight overall increase from 38% in 2018 to 43% in 2023. This growth was driven by Democrats and Independents, while the gap between Democrats and Republicans widened. The report identifies specific demographic groups with high and low efficacy and finds that hearing others discuss global warming is positively associated with higher collective political efficacy, particularly among Republicans.

• Between December 2018 and October 2023, the percentage of Americans who felt at least "moderately confident" that they could influence federal government action on global warming rose from 38% to 43%.
• The increase in collective political efficacy was concentrated among Democrats (increasing from 46% to 57%) and Independents (increasing from 32% to 43%), while Republicans experienced a non-statistically significant decrease from 28% to 23%. Consequently, the efficacy gap between Democrats and Republicans grew from 16 percentage points in 2018 to 34 percentage points in 2023.
• As of October 2023, the groups with the highest collective political efficacy (50% or more) are Hispanics/Latinos, Black/African Americans, Democrats, and Gen Z/Millennials. Conversely, Republicans, White Americans, Baby Boomers/Silent Generation, and males all reported efficacy levels below 40%.
• Hearing others discuss global warming at least once a month is associated with higher collective political efficacy (54%) compared to those who hear it less often (39%). This effect is more pronounced among Republicans, where the difference is 14 percentage points (35% vs 21%), compared to a 7 percentage point difference for Democrats (61% vs 54%).

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2024). Collective Political Efficacy. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/collective-political-efficacy/

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Collective Political Efficacy. 2024. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/collective-political-efficacy/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Collective Political Efficacy |date=4 June 2024 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/collective-political-efficacy/ |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2024collective, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Collective Political Efficacy}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2024}, month = jun, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/publications/collective-political-efficacy/}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }