How Do Environmental and Methodological Factors Influence Study Participants’ Answers in Surveys on Risk Perception in the Context of Climate Change and Heat Stress?

Abstract

Research on climate change and impacts of natural hazards, such as heat waves, on human health has increased in recent years. Various approaches are used to study people’s attitudes and actions in this context, but little is known about the extent to which different modes or other environmental variables influence the results. Therefore, we ex- amined differences between surveys in three German cities, compared survey modes and investigated the influence of the temperature on the day of the survey and the previous days. We conducted two surveys on the topics of climate change risk perception and heat risk perception. In summer and autumn of 2019, in total 1,417 people from the three medium-sized German cities of Potsdam, Remscheid and Würzburg were surveyed via telephone or online. In sum- mer of 2020, 280 people were surveyed face-to-face in public parks in Potsdam. Climate change risk perception, the perception of heat waves as a health threat and the knowledge of heat warnings differed depending on place of resi- dence, survey mode and temperature. Participants of the online survey showed higher scores of risk perception than participants of the telephone and face-to-face surveys, indicating a self-selection bias. Increased temperature was associated with slightly higher levels of respondents’ heat wave risk perception and, among participants surveyed outside, climate change risk perception. The finding that both survey mode and environmental factors can influence survey results should be heeded when planning or interpreting and comparing studies.