The effect of different extreme weather events on attitudes toward climate change

different types of disasters. The dots represent the average effects, and the lines the 95% confi- dence intervals. Results in grey correspond to the pre-exposure analysis, which is the compari- son between never treated and eventually treated (event time = -1). Results in black correspond to the post-exposure analysis, in particular to effects after initial exposure (event time = 0) and one year after initial exposure (event time = 1). The pre-exposure results for every outcome show no significant effects, which provides cru- cial evidence for the parallel trend assumption. In other words, the never treated and the even- tually treated group followed a common trend before the latter was exposed to an extreme weather event. Additionally, we observe no significant post-exposure effects at any time for floods, hurricanes, or severe storms on beliefs about the seriousness of global change and pol- icy preferences to address the issue. As shown in Fig 1a, however, we do see a statistically significant result for first exposure to a fire (event time = 0)—the outcome increases 0.08 points on a 1–5 point-scale (95% CI: [0.002, 0.155]. This effect does not appear enduring, as it disappears one year after initial expo- sure (event time = 1). We report the results in table format in Appendix D in S1 File. When using a standardized version of the outcome, first exposure to fire (event time = 0) increases the outcome by 0.06 standard deviation units, which is a small-sized effect. Although it is

important to recognize these effects are substantively small and short-lasting, they could have Fig 1. Effect of exposure to disasters on attitudes toward climate change. A length of exposure equal to 0 corresponds to the first or initial exposure to a disaster. A length of exposure equal to 1 corresponds to the first period after the initial exposure to a disaster. Conversely, a length of exposure equal to -1 refers to the first period before initial exposure. N = 28,128 (respondents-wave). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300967.g001 PLOS ONE Extreme weather events and attitudes toward climate change PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0300967 May 15, 2024 6 / 10