The Weather Outside Today Affects Your Stance On Climate Change

Republicans and Democrats stick with their (polarized) attitudes on climate change, more or less. It’s the independent voters who are more easily swayed.
 
So easily, in fact, that an unseasonably warm or cold day is enough to change some opinions.

Researchers from the University of New Hampshire correlated meteorological data with 5,000 random-sample telephone interviews.
 
Respondents were asked whether they a) thought climate change was real and caused by humans or b) was either not happening at all or wasn’t caused by humans. If the day before or day of the interview was unseasonably warm or cold, the respondents’ overall attitude about climate change, well, changed. When it was warm, the interviewees were more likely to believe in anthropogenic climate change. When it was cold, they weren’t.