Even when told that the members of the public surveyed had also received a clear description of the personal costs of the climate policies, MPs still significantly underestimated support. “They are perhaps overly pessimistic about the impact of costs” on public support, said Tanase. “Our data showed that when the UK MPs believed there was insufficient support for some of the policies, they were less willing to speak up in support of the policy. However, even after these interventions, the politicians still underestimated public support by about 7%, so the misperceptions were not dispelled completely. Furthermore, said Tanase: “There is intentional disinformation – there’s a lot of people who have an interest in climate support being muted.

Source: The Guardian January 05, 2026 17:10 UTC