Perceptions of CO2 Report - Global CCS Institute

7.2.3 PERCEPTIONS OF CO 2First assessmentPerceptions of CO 2 were assessed by asking respondents to indicate whether they perceived it asmore “negative” or “positive”, more “clean” or “dirty”, more “useful” or “useless”, and more“dangerous” or “safe”. On all four scales, around half of respondents indicated that they did nothave a specific opinion about these topics, choosing the option “Neither/Both equally.” On average,people perceived CO 2 to be slightly negative (m = 2.69), slightly dirty (m = 2.68), and very slightlydangerous (m = 2.90). However, they did also perceive CO 2 to be slightly useful (m = 3.19).Figure 8: Impression of CO 2 by all participants (First assessment)A regression analysis containing all of the knowledge items revealed which parts of therespondents’ knowledge significantly influenced their perception of CO 2 and whether this influencewas negative or positive. For results of the analysis, see Table 9 in Appendix F. Results showedthat belief in global warming had the strongest influence on the perception of CO 2 as negative orpositive. That is, a belief in global warming led people to perceive CO 2 more negatively (beta -0.14,p < 0.01). Belief that CO 2 is emitted from coal and natural gas fired power plants also had a strongeffect (beta -0.15, p < 0.01). Respondents perceived CO 2 to be more dirty when they believed CO 2is emitted from coal and natural gas powered power plants (beta -0.14, p < 0.01) and when theybelieved it has similar effects on human health as do air pollutants such as soot (beta -0.19, p