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1. The Misperception of Racial Economic Inequality

   https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691619863049  

   Kraus, Michael W.; Onyeador, Ivuoma N.; Daumeyer, Natalie M.; Rucker, Julian M.; Richeson, Jennifer A. (November 2019, Perspectives on Psychological Science)

   null (Ed.)

   Racial economic inequality is a foundational feature of the United States, yet many Americans appear oblivious to it. In the present work we consider the psychology underlying this collective willful ignorance. Drawing on prior research and new evidence from a nationally representative sample of adults ( N = 1,008), we offer compelling evidence that Americans vastly underestimate racial economic inequality, especially the racial wealth gap. In particular, respondents thought that the Black–White wealth gap was smaller, by around 40 percentage points in 1963 and around 80 percentage points in 2016, than its actual size. We then consider the motivational, cognitive, and structural factors that are likely to contribute to these misperceptions and suggest directions for future research to test these ideas. Importantly, we highlight the implications of our collective ignorance of racial economic inequality and the challenge of creating greater accuracy in perceptions of these racial economic disparities, as well as outline the steps policymakers might take to create messages on this topic that effectively promote equity-enhancing policies. We close with an appeal to psychological science to at least consider, if not center, the racial patterning of these profound economic gaps. 

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2. Change in US state-level public opinion about climate change: 2008–2020

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/aca702  

   Marlon, Jennifer R; Wang, Xinran; Bergquist, Parrish; Howe, Peter D; Leiserowitz, Anthony; Maibach, Edward; Mildenberger, Matto; Rosenthal, Seth (December 2022, Environmental Research Letters)

   Abstract Public attitudes toward climate change influence climate and energy policies and guide individual mitigation and adaptation behaviors. Over the last decade, as scientific certainty about the causes and impacts of, and solutions to the climate crisis has increased, cities, states, and regions in the United States have pursued diverse policy strategies. Yet, our understanding of how Americans’ climate views are changing remains largely limited to national trends. Here we use a large US survey dataset ( N = 27 075 ) to estimate dynamic, state-level changes in 16 climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy preferences over 13 years (2008–2020). We find increases in global warming issue importance and perceived harm in every state. Policy support, however, increased in more liberal states like California and New York, but remained stable elsewhere. Year-by-year estimates of state-level climate opinions can be used to support sub-national mitigation and adaptation efforts that depend on public support and engagement. 

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3. How perceptions of autonomy relate to beliefs about inequality and fairness

   https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0244387  

   Aldama, Abraham; Bicchieri, Cristina; Freundt, Jana; Mellers, Barbara; Peters, Ellen (January 2021, PLOS ONE)

   Fan, Maoyong (Ed.)

   Although inequality in the US has increased since the 1960s, several studies show that Americans underestimate it. Reasons include overreliance on one’s local perspective and ideologically-motivated cognition. We propose a novel mechanism to account for the misperceptions of income inequality. We hypothesize that compared to those who feel less autonomy, the people who believe they are autonomous and have control over their lives also believe that (1) income inequality is lower and (2) income inequality is more acceptable. Using a representative sample of 3,427 Americans, we find evidence to support these hypotheses. 

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4. Disrupting Beliefs in Racial Progress: Reminders of Persistent Racism Alter Perceptions of Past, But Not Current, Racial Economic Equality

   https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167220942625  

   Onyeador, Ivuoma N.; Daumeyer, Natalie M.; Rucker, Julian M.; Duker, Ajua; Kraus, Michael W.; Richeson, Jennifer A. (January 2020, Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin)

   null (Ed.)

   Although there has been limited progress toward economic equality between Americans over the past half-century, many Americans are largely unaware of the persistence of economic racial disparities. One intervention for this widespread ignorance is to inform White Americans of the impact of racism on the outcomes of Black Americans. In two studies, we attempted to improve the accuracy of Whites’ perceptions of racial progress and estimates of contemporary racial economic equality. Reminding White Americans about the persistence of racial disparities produced smaller overestimates of how much progress had been made toward racial economic equality between 1963 and 2016. Rather than modifying overestimates of contemporary racial economic equality, participants who read about disparities assessed the past as more equitable than participants who did not. We discuss implications of these findings for efforts to address Whites’ misperceptions of racial economic equality and to challenge narratives of American racial progress. 

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5. Understanding perceived climate risks to household water supply and their implications for adaptation: evidence from California

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-023-03517-0  

   Dobbin, Kristin B.; Fencl, Amanda L.; Pierce, Gregory; Beresford, Melissa; Gonzalez, Silvia; Jepson, Wendy (April 2023, Climatic Change)

   Abstract   Rapid adaptation is necessary to maintain, let alone expand, access to reliable, safe drinking water in the face of climate change. Existing research focuses largely on the role, priorities, and incentives of local managers to pursue adaptation strategies while mostly neglecting the role of the broader public, despite the strong public support required to fund and implement many climate adaptation plans. In this paper, we interrogate the relationship between personal experiences of household water supply impacts from extreme weather events and hazard exposure with individual concern about future supply reliability among a statewide representative sample of California households. We find that more than one-third of Californians report experiencing impacts of climate change on their household water supplies and show that these reported impacts differently influence residents’ concern about future water supply reliability, depending on the type of event experienced. In contrast, residents’ concern about future water supplies is not significantly associated with hazard exposure. These findings emphasize the importance of local managers’ attending to not only how climate change is projected to affect their water resources, but how, and whether, residents perceive these risks. The critical role of personal experience in increasing concern highlights that post-extreme events with water supply impacts may offer a critical window to advance solutions. Managers should not assume, however, that all extreme events will promote concern in the same way or to the same degree. 

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