Political leaders can influence public beliefs about climate change, and climate beliefs can influence climate actions. But, much is still unknown about (1) whether changes in political landscapes influence public’s climate beliefs and (2) the psychological process through which climate beliefs influence pro-environmental sentiments and actions. Achieving a better understanding these influences are the dual purposes of this paper, we investigated during the unique setting of the 2016 US presidential elections. First, we explored to what extent the American public’s belief in the anthropogenic origins and negative impacts of climate change were influenced by the 2016 US presidential election and earliest administrative days of a climate-skeptical political leader, Donald Trump. We found Trump’s influence on public climate beliefs may have increased after his election in such a way that may have polarized public climate beliefs. Compared with pre-election levels, supporters’ climate beliefs grew weaker and, further, opponents’ climate beliefs grew stronger after his election. Second, we tested a novel conditional mediation model that proposes climate beliefs interact to exert their influence on climate actions via moral behavioral sentiments. Specifically, we found people’s origin and impact climate beliefs interact to influence climate actions by activating moral sentiments about their own environmental behavior (i.e., guilt, striving to be a better person), with the particularly weak moral sentiments reported by those with both weak belief in climate change’s anthropogenic origins and its negative impacts. Moral sentiments, in turn, predicted respondents’ willingness to save energy to reduce climate change and their support for the Paris Climate Agreement. These results suggest the election of climate-skeptical political leaders can impact the public’s climate beliefs. Moreover, climate beliefs interact to influence the moral sentiments people feel about their own behavior, and consequently, influence their climate-friendly behavioral intentions and policy preferences.

中文翻译：

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在不断变化的政治格局中将气候信念转化为行动

政治领导人可以影响公众对气候变化的信念，气候信念可以影响气候行动。但是，关于（1）政治格局的变化是否会影响公众的气候信念以及（2）气候信念影响亲环境情绪和行动的心理过程，仍有很多未知数。更好地理解这些影响是本文的双重目的，我们在 2016 年美国总统大选的独特背景下进行了调查。首先，我们探讨了美国公众对气候变化的人为起源和负面影响的信念在多大程度上受到了 2016 年美国总统大选和对气候持怀疑态度的政治领导人唐纳德特朗普最早的行政管理时代的影响。我们发现特朗普对公共气候信仰的影响可能在选举后可能会增加，这种方式可能会产生极化的公共气候信仰。与选举前水平相比，支持者的气候信仰变得越来越弱，进一步地，对手的气候信仰在他选举后更加强大。其次，我们测试了一种新的条件中介模型，该模型提出气候信念相互作用，通过道德行为情绪对气候行动施加影响。具体来说，我们发现人们的起源和影响气候信念通过激活关于他们自己的环境行为的道德情感（即内疚，努力成为一个更好的人）相互作用来影响气候行动，而那些信仰较弱的人报告的道德情感特别弱气候变化的人为起源及其负面影响。反过来，道德情绪预测了受访者节约能源以减少气候变化的意愿以及他们对《巴黎气候协定》的支持。这些结果表明，对气候持怀疑态度的政治领导人的选举会影响公众的气候信念。此外，气候信念相互作用以影响人们对自己行为的道德情感，从而影响他们对气候友好的行为意图和政策偏好。