Existing literature on climate change beliefs in the US suggests that partisan polarization begets climate change polarization and that the climate beliefs of those on both sides of the partisan divide are firmly held and invariable. Here, we use data from a large panel survey of Oklahoma residents administered quarterly from 2014 through 2018 to challenge this perspective. Contrary to the expectation of rough symmetry in partisan polarization on climate change, we find that partisans on the political right have much more unstable beliefs about climate change than partisans on the left. An important implication is that if climate beliefs are well anchored on the left, but less so on the right, the latter are more susceptible to change. We interpret this to suggest that, despite polarizing elite rhetoric, public beliefs about climate change maintain the potential to shift towards broader acceptance and a perceived need for action.

在美国，有关气候变化信念的现有文献表明，党派两极分化引发了气候变化两极分化，党派分歧两侧的人们的气候信念被坚定地持有并且是不变的。在这里，我们使用从2014年至2018年每季度管理的俄克拉荷马州居民的大型面板调查中的数据来挑战这一观点。与对气候变化的党派两极分化大致对称的预期相反，我们发现政治右派的党派对气候变化的信念比左翼的党派更加不稳定。一个重要的含义是，如果气候信念很好地固定在左边，而右边却没有那么多，则后者更容易发生变化。我们的解释是，尽管有两极分化的言论，