Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item

Brief, but psychometrically valid assessments of psychological constructs are increasingly needed to be included in larger psychological and other social scientific studies, such as Many Labs projects or representative surveys. Here, we provide a novel one-item measure of individual differences in b...

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Main Authors: Sebastian Berger, David Hauser, Anna Lange, Sander van der Linden
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology 2025-07-01
Series:Global Environmental Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.10895
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author Sebastian Berger
David Hauser
Anna Lange
Sander van der Linden
author_facet Sebastian Berger
David Hauser
Anna Lange
Sander van der Linden
author_sort Sebastian Berger
collection DOAJ
description Brief, but psychometrically valid assessments of psychological constructs are increasingly needed to be included in larger psychological and other social scientific studies, such as Many Labs projects or representative surveys. Here, we provide a novel one-item measure of individual differences in belief in climate change. Based on two studies (N = 913, N = 288) recruited from various global regions, we establish convergent, predictive, and discriminant validity. More specifically, we find that the single-item measure correlates with other constructs measuring belief in climate change and with relevant downstream constructs, among them intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior, actual consequential behavior, and self-reported everyday behaviors. We therefore conclude that the single item is a suitable instrument to measure belief in climate change when multiple-item assessments are either too costly or otherwise unfeasible.
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publisher PsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for Psychology
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series Global Environmental Psychology
spelling doaj-art-5a9d2e24ffe04022b87aa70fd7777fdd2025-08-20T03:35:44ZengPsychOpen GOLD/ Leibniz Institute for PsychologyGlobal Environmental Psychology2750-66302025-07-01310.5964/gep.10895gep.10895Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single ItemSebastian Berger0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2392-1024David Hauser1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1355-163XAnna Lange2https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8150-3712Sander van der Linden3https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0269-1744Department of Sociology, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Organization and Human Resources, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandInstitute of Social and Preventive Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, SwitzerlandDepartment of Psychology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, United KingdomBrief, but psychometrically valid assessments of psychological constructs are increasingly needed to be included in larger psychological and other social scientific studies, such as Many Labs projects or representative surveys. Here, we provide a novel one-item measure of individual differences in belief in climate change. Based on two studies (N = 913, N = 288) recruited from various global regions, we establish convergent, predictive, and discriminant validity. More specifically, we find that the single-item measure correlates with other constructs measuring belief in climate change and with relevant downstream constructs, among them intentions to engage in pro-environmental behavior, actual consequential behavior, and self-reported everyday behaviors. We therefore conclude that the single item is a suitable instrument to measure belief in climate change when multiple-item assessments are either too costly or otherwise unfeasible.https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.10895single-item measuresclimate changemeasurementpro-environmental intentionpro-environmental behavior
spellingShingle Sebastian Berger
David Hauser
Anna Lange
Sander van der Linden
Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
Global Environmental Psychology
single-item measures
climate change
measurement
pro-environmental intention
pro-environmental behavior
title Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
title_full Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
title_fullStr Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
title_full_unstemmed Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
title_short Measuring Belief in Climate Change With a Single Item
title_sort measuring belief in climate change with a single item
topic single-item measures
climate change
measurement
pro-environmental intention
pro-environmental behavior
url https://doi.org/10.5964/gep.10895
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AT annalange measuringbeliefinclimatechangewithasingleitem
AT sandervanderlinden measuringbeliefinclimatechangewithasingleitem