Concern for the environment and false statements about the polluting effects of vehicle emissions.

This study has found that those members of the public that have a high level of environmental concern appear to have a good knowledge of the polluting effects of vehicles but that this knowledge is likely to be shallow based on the finding that high levels of environmental concern correlate negatively or not at all with scores on the ‘false items’ subscale of a 31 item knowledge of vehicle emission scale. Further analyses reveal positive correlations between true statements about vehicle emissions and levels of environmental concern, but either moderately negative or no correlations to the false statements. These results demonstrate that those members of the public that are most likely to be receptive to education, that is those with high environmental concern, still lack the in-depth understanding needed to identify false information. The study also shows that survey instruments to test knowledge are likely to overstate the public’s knowledge unless the ability to identify false information is also tested. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E212706.