Who Avoids Climate News? Exploring Individual-Level Drivers Across Eight Countries

Abstract

Climate news avoidance remains understudied, often assumed to follow the same patterns as general news avoidance. This cross-country study explores associations with climate news avoidance across eight countries (the US, UK, Germany, France, Japan, Brazil, India, and Pakistan) to test whether individual-level drivers are consistent across diverse contexts or vary by country. Our findings reveal varying levels of climate news avoidance, with disengagement consistently linked to being younger and to self-identification with the political right. Negative evaluations of news emerge as key drivers of avoidance. Emotions play a role in some cases but their influence is limited and varies across countries. By focusing on climate news, this study advances our understanding of how and why people disengage, offering a more nuanced perspective beyond general news avoidance.