Climate hypocrisy attacks are bipartisan, but their psychological impact is unequal

Abstract

Environmental action is one place where accusations of hypocrisy are frequent across the political spectrum. Here we test whether there is indeed a hypocrisy penalty whereby the same environmentally damaging actions are blamed more if the agent speaks out in favor of climate protection, rather than saying nothing. In two pre-registered studies, we also test whether the penalty faced for hypocrisy is the same depending on one’s own climate policy support, and whether the target of the attacks modulates it. In two pre-registered studies (N = 962), we confirm a hypocrisy penalty but see it decrease among strong climate policy supporters and when hypocrisy came from one's political ingroup. Our findings highlight the asymmetric political impact of climate hypocrisy accusations, with implications for climate communication and political psychology.