Research suggests that social media can cause users, especially young adults, to overestimate their knowledge about climate change. Knowledge overestimation may then lead users to communicate more frequently about climate change with others. We test these hypotheses with a four-wave panel survey of respondents aged 18–29 years. We find that social media exposure is positively associated with respondents’ tendencies to overestimate their knowledge about climate change, but we do not find causal effects. Overestimation is also related to perceived information overload, subjective digital literacy, and trust in social media comments. While overestimation did not cause higher outspokenness about climate change, it increased respondents’ efforts to persuade others and engage with politicians. These results have implications for science communication and education.

中文翻译：

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气候变化一代：直言不讳但过于自信？高估气候知识的年轻人如何使用社交媒体并与他人互动

研究表明，社交媒体会导致用户，尤其是年轻人，高估他们对气候变化的了解。知识高估可能会导致用户更频繁地与他人交流气候变化。我们通过对 18-29 岁受访者的四波面板调查来检验这些假设。我们发现，社交媒体曝光与受访者高估他们对气候变化的了解的倾向呈正相关，但我们没有发现因果效应。高估还与感知到的信息过载、主观数字素养和对社交媒体评论的信任有关。虽然高估并没有导致受访者对气候变化的直言不讳，但它增加了受访者说服他人和与政客接触的努力。这些结果对科学传播和教育具有影响。