Is There a Climate “Spiral of Silence” in America?

A March 2016 survey of 1,204 American adults reveals a disconnect between personal concern for global warming and social discourse. While a majority of Americans are interested in and personally value the issue, they rarely hear it discussed in the media or among acquaintances, and frequently avoid discussing it with family and friends themselves.

• A majority of Americans express interest in and personal importance regarding global warming: 67% are either "very" or "moderately" interested, and 61% consider the issue "extremely", "very", or "moderately" important to them personally.
• Exposure to climate change discussions is low across both media and social circles. Only 44% of Americans hear global warming discussed in the media at least once a month, and only 18% hear people they know discuss it at least once a month.
• There is a significant gap between personal interest and social action; 68% of Americans "rarely" or "never" discuss global warming with family and friends. This includes a majority of those who are actually interested in the topic: 57% of those interested and 54% of those who find it important "rarely" or "never" talk about it with family and friends.

APA

Maibach, E., Leiserowitz, A., Rosenthal, S., Roser-Renouf, C., & Cutler, M. (2016). Is There a Climate “Spiral of Silence” in America? Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2016/09/Climate-Spiral-Silence-March-2016.pdf

Chicago

Maibach, Edward, Anthony Leiserowitz, Seth Rosenthal, Connie Roser-Renouf, and M. Cutler. Is There a Climate “Spiral of Silence” in America? Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 2016. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2016/09/Climate-Spiral-Silence-March-2016.pdf.

Wikipedia

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BibTeX

@techreport{maibach2016there, author = {Maibach, Edward and Leiserowitz, Anthony and Rosenthal, Seth and Roser-Renouf, Connie and Cutler, M.}, title = {{Is There a Climate “Spiral of Silence” in America?}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2016}, month = mar, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2016/09/Climate-Spiral-Silence-March-2016.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }