Public agreement with misinformation about wind farms

Abstract

Misinformation campaigns target wind farms, but levels of agreement with this misinformation among the broader public are unclear. Across six nationally quota-based samples in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia (total N = 6008), over a quarter of respondents agree with half or more of contrarian claims about wind farms. Agreement with diverse claims is highly correlated, suggesting an underlying belief system directed at wind farm rejection. Consistent with this, agreement is best predicted (positively) by a conspiracist worldview (i.e., the general tendency to believe in conspiracy theories; explained variance ΔR² = 0.11-0.20) and (negatively) by a pro-ecological worldview (ΔR² = 0.04-0.13). Exploratory analyses show that agreement with contrarian claims is associated with lower support for pro-wind policies and greater intentions to protest against wind farms. We conclude that wind farm contrarianism is a mainstream phenomenon, rooted in people's worldviews and that poses a challenge for communicators and institutions committed to accelerating the energy transition.

Fig. 1. Percentage of participants who rated “rather agree” or “strongly agree” with 16 contrarian claims (Study 1).

Claims are sorted by decreasing the average level of agreement across countries. Exact wordings can be found in Table 1. United States: N = 1000, United Kingdom: N = 1000, Australia N = 1000. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Fig. 2. Multiple regression analyses with gender, age, education, science knowledge, environmental identity, New Ecological Paradigm, political orientation and conspiracy mentality predicting agreement with contrarian claims (Study 1).

Data are presented as standardised regression coefficients β with their 95% confidence intervals. Tests were two-sided and no adjustments for multiple comparisons were made (α = 0.05). Gender was coded −1 male and +1 female, so positive coefficients represent higher scores for females (vs. males). Participants not identifying as male or female were not included in these analyses. United States: N = 989, United Kingdom: N = 996, Australia N = 998. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Fig. 3. Percentage of participants who rated “rather agree” or “strongly agree” with 13 contrarian claims (Study 2).

Claims are sorted by decreasing the average level of agreement across countries. Exact wordings can be found in Table 3. United States: N = 1000, United Kingdom: N = 1004, Australia N = 1004. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Fig. 4. Multiple regression analyses with gender, age, education, science knowledge, New Ecological Paradigm, political orientation and conspiracy mentality predicting agreement with contrarian claims (Study 2).

Data are presented as standardised regression coefficients β with their 95% confidence intervals. Tests were two-sided and no adjustments for multiple comparisons were made (α = 0.05). Gender was coded −1 male and +1 female, so positive coefficients represent higher scores for females (vs. males). Participants not identifying as male or female were not included in these analyses. United States: N = 995, United Kingdom: N = 1003, Australia N = 1001. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.