Winter is in full swing up here in Minneapolis, and with it comes the traditional chorus that “it isn’t that bad” just yet. However, new research shows complaining about the weather—the archetype of casual chatting—may be more than just small talk. The Washington Post reports on new research from Aaron McCright, Riley Dunlap, and Chenyang Xiao which finds a significant relationship between political affiliation and perceptions about the weather. From the article:
The paper…examined people’s perceptions of the winter of 2012, which was anomalously warm. Comparing Gallup polling results from early March 2012 (just after the winter ended) with actual temperature data…“The researchers found that ‘Democrats [were] more likely than Republicans to perceive local winter temperatures as warmer than usual”…beliefs about global warming also predicted temperature perceptions.
It may have been one of the warmest years on record, but this work shows that partisanship affected who actually felt warmer than usual. We’ve known about socialization for a long time— many researchers study how social groups teach people to act in certain ways—but this study is especially interesting because it shows how deeply political socialization can effect individuals. Later in the article Dunlap argues that “people have begun to filter their fundamental perceptions of what is going on…through a partisan frame.” Contrary to expectations, this also means firsthand experiences with extreme weather as the planet warms may not be enough to inspire widespread change for environmental protection. Looks like we’ll need more than small talk.
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