Climate Change’s Four Irelands: An Audience Segmentation Analysis

The report identifies four stable audience segments in Ireland: the Alarmed (34%), Concerned (48%), Cautious (14%), and Doubtful (4%). While belief that climate change is happening is high across all groups, significant differences exist regarding its causes, perceived urgency, and support for restrictive policies. A key finding is a widespread lack of climate literacy, with all segments underestimating the carbon impact of dietary choices and overestimating the impact of small actions like using reusable bags. Trust in scientists remains high across all groups, including the Doubtful.

• The Irish public is divided into four stable audience segments: the Alarmed (34%), Concerned (48%), Cautious (14%), and Doubtful (4%), with proportions remaining statistically consistent between the first and second waves of the study.
• While a majority in every segment agree climate change is occurring, there is significant misunderstanding regarding its causes; only 53% of the total population correctly believe it is caused mostly by human activities, while 39% erroneously believe it is caused equally by human and natural factors.
• The Alarmed and Concerned segments express the highest levels of worry and perceive climate change as an immediate threat, whereas the Cautious and Doubtful generally do not perceive it as a serious personal or community threat.
• There is broad support for redistributive and protective climate policies, such as energy efficiency grants for low-income households, but significant opposition to restrictive measures like banning fossil fuels for home heating or increasing taxes on petrol and diesel cars, particularly among the Cautious and Doubtful.
• All four audience segments exhibit systematic biases in climate literacy, specifically underestimating the carbon footprint impact of dietary choices and overestimating the impact of behaviours such as recycling and using reusable shopping bags.
• Scientists are the most trusted source of information on climate change across all segments, including the Doubtful, where 61% express trust in messaging from scientists.
• There is no evidence of a divide between urban and rural residents regarding climate change attitudes, as the four audience segments are distributed similarly across both settings.
• The Alarmed segment is the most likely to engage in pro-environmental consumer behaviours, such as avoiding red meat or rewarding companies that take climate action, while the Doubtful are the least likely to do so.

APA

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (2022). Climate Change’s Four Irelands: An Audience Segmentation Analysis. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2014/10/EPA-Climate-Changes-Four-Irelands-Report-Wave-2-Report-2.pdf

Chicago

Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Climate Change’s Four Irelands: An Audience Segmentation Analysis. 2022. https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2014/10/EPA-Climate-Changes-Four-Irelands-Report-Wave-2-Report-2.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=Yale Program on Climate Change Communication |title=Climate Change’s Four Irelands: An Audience Segmentation Analysis |date=2022 |url=https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2014/10/EPA-Climate-Changes-Four-Irelands-Report-Wave-2-Report-2.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{yaleprogramonclimatechangecommunication2022climate, author = {{Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}}, title = {{Climate Change’s Four Irelands: An Audience Segmentation Analysis}}, institution = {Yale Program on Climate Change Communication}, year = {2022}, url = {https://climatecommunication.yale.edu/app/uploads/2014/10/EPA-Climate-Changes-Four-Irelands-Report-Wave-2-Report-2.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }