AI Qual Research: Climate Change Acceptance Definition

According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, published August 25, 2026), two consensus definitions of climate change acceptance for undergraduate science students emerged: the Anthropogenic Definition and the Anthropogenic + Mechanistic Definition. The PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026) found that experts split their agreement across these two definitions after four Delphi rounds, so instrument and curricular choices should match the chosen definition.

• In a scoping review conducted between October 2023 and February 2024, the authors identified 523 relevant articles and extracted 3, 089 measurement items, 2, 402 of which were unique (PLOS One, Duke & Holt, 2026).
• During Delphi rounds carried out from April 2024 through July 2025, the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026) reported that 50.9% (n = 29) of Round 2 participants preferred the more detailed definition, 69% (n = 18) chose it in Round 3, and in Round 4 a simpler definition was preferred by 64% (n = 70).
• The two final definitions reported in PLOS One (Duke & Holt, 2026) are: the Anthropogenic Definition, “Climate change is happening and human behaviors are causing it, ” and the Anthropogenic + Mechanistic Definition, “Climate change is happening, average temperatures and greenhouse gases are increasing globally, and human behaviors are causing it.”

Answer: The PLOS One study used a mixed-methods Delphi approach to convert 14 preliminary constructs into two robust, situationally useful definitions for undergraduate science students. According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), the team started with a scoping review (Oct 2023–Feb 2024) of 523 articles, extracted 3, 089 items (2, 402 unique), and distilled 14 constructs that informed interview and survey instruments.

According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), the team ran four iterative rounds (Rounds 1–4) of interviews and surveys with educators and stakeholders recruited between May 2024 and July 2025, reaching thematic saturation in educator rationale by Round 4. According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), percent agreement oscillated across rounds: Round 2 favored the Anthropogenic + Mechanistic Definition with 50.9% (n = 29), Round 3 saw 69% (n = 18) favor the detailed definition, and Round 4 saw 64% (n = 70) favor the simpler Anthropogenic Definition.

According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), the authors interpreted this pattern as bipolarity in expert opinion and recommended that the appropriate definition depends on educational context and student academic level. An educator participant told the authors, "I chose this definition because it is the most comprehensive, " while another educator said, "I prefer the simplistic version because when you start to introduce more constructs then there [are] more factors for a student to think about, " both quotes reported in PLOS One (Duke & Holt, 2026).

Answer: Researchers must choose a definition and align instruments with that definition instead of assuming a single universal construct. According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), inconsistent implicit definitions in prior work make cross-study synthesis unreliable because instruments often mix occurrence, causation, mechanisms, outcomes, and antecedents without a shared construct.

According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), instrument developers should report which of the two consensus definitions they target and provide validity evidence tied to that definition, because AERA standards require a clear construct definition to support validity (PLOS One references AERA's Standards).

According to the PLOS One study (Duke & Holt, 2026), educators may use the Anthropogenic Definition as a baseline for incoming students and the Anthropogenic + Mechanistic Definition as a target for advanced undergraduates, because many Round 3 participants cited learning progressions when choosing definitions.

The PLOS One Delphi study (Duke & Holt, published August 25, 2026) produced two defensible, situationally useful definitions of climate change acceptance for undergraduate science students: the concise Anthropogenic Definition and the more detailed Anthropogenic + Mechanistic Definition.

Researchers and educators should explicitly state which definition they target, align instruments to that definition, and produce validity evidence before drawing comparisons across studies, as recommended in PLOS One (Duke & Holt, 2026).

If you analyze interview transcripts, survey items, or existing instruments and need to map items to either consensus definition, Evidano can accelerate coding, cross-segment analysis, and visualization for publication or curricular decision making (see Evidano features).

Ready to test re-coding or run a rapid Delphi-style thematic synthesis on your instrument pool? Try Evidano for free.