Climate Hypocrisy Attacks Are Bipartisan, but Their Impact Is Unequal

Abstract

In two pre-registered studies (N = 962), we examined moral judgments of environmentally harmful behavior in hypocritical versus non-hypocritical contexts. Hypocrisy was judged more harshly, but this penalty diminished among strong climate policy supporters and when hypocrisy came from one's political ingroup. Our flndings highlight the asymmetric impact of climate hypocrisy accusations, with implications for climate communication and political divide.