A growing body of research examines the role of extreme weather experience—as one of the most personal, visceral (and increasingly frequent and severe) impacts of climate change—in shaping views on climate change. A remaining question is whether the experience of an extreme weather event increases climate change concern via experiential learning or reinforces existing views via motivated reasoning. Building on this work, we explore the relationship between personal experience and climate change policy preferences using surveys in 10 communities that experienced extreme weather events (3 tornadoes, 3 floods, 2 wildfires, 1 hurricane and 1 landslide). We find that self-reported personal harm aligns with objective measures of event impacts and that personal harm (i.e., experience) is associated with higher levels of policy support. However, we do not find that objective measures of event impacts are related to policy support. Though political ideology (i.e., motivated reasoning) dominates our model of policy support in predictable ways, personal harm moderates this relationship suggesting that conservatives reporting higher levels of personal harm from the event are, on average, more likely to express support for climate policy than those reporting lower levels of harm. We postulate that while extreme weather events may serve as teachable moments on climate change, their lessons may only reach conservatives who feel personally harmed, even in the communities most affected.

越来越多的研究机构研究了极端天气经验在塑造有关气候变化的观点时所起的作用，极端天气经验是气候变化的最私人的，内在的（并且日益频繁和严重的）影响之一。剩下的问题是，极端天气事件的经历是否会通过体验式学习增加对气候变化的关注，还是通过积极的推理来强化现有的观点。在这项工作的基础上，我们通过对10个经历极端天气事件（3次龙卷风，3次洪水，2次野火，1次飓风和1次滑坡）的社区进行调查，探索了个人经验与气候变化政策偏好之间的关系。我们发现，自我报告的人身伤害与事件影响的客观度量相符，并且人身伤害（即经验）与更高级别的政策支持相关。然而，我们发现事件影响的客观衡量标准与政策支持无关。尽管政治意识形态（即动机推理）以可预测的方式主导了我们的政策支持模型，但人身伤害减轻了这种关系，这表明保守派报告说，从事件中得出的人身伤害水平更高，平均而言，他们比气候政策更愿意表达支持。那些危害程度较低的人。我们假设，极端天气事件可能是应对气候变化的重要时刻，但他们的课程可能只对感到个人伤害的保守派开放，即使在受影响最严重的社区中也是如此。人身伤害缓和了这种关系，这表明，与那些举报人身伤害较低水平的保守主义者相比，报道该事件中人身伤害较高水平的保守主义者平均更有可能表达对气候政策的支持。我们假设，极端天气事件可能是应对气候变化的重要时刻，但他们的课程可能只对感到个人伤害的保守派开放，即使在受影响最严重的社区中也是如此。人身伤害缓和了这种关系，这表明，与那些举报人身伤害较低水平的保守主义者相比，报道该事件中人身伤害较高水平的保守主义者平均更有可能表达对气候政策的支持。我们假设，极端天气事件可能是应对气候变化的重要时刻，但他们的课程可能只对感到个人伤害的保守派开放，即使在受影响最严重的社区中也是如此。