Measuring Climate Change Knowledge in a Social Media Game with a Purpose

Layperson´s knowledge on climate change is highly relevant for the communication and public acceptance of climate policy. However, international surveys demand considerable efforts. As an alternative, player statistics obtained in games with a purpose may circumvent costly and self-aware survey settings, and allow collecting longitudinal measures. The social media game Climate Quiz is presented as an instrument to measure climate change knowledge. Players gain points by choosing the same ontological relations between term pairs related to climate change as the majority of co-players. Using game data obtained from 193 players, the game point score is shown to have satisfactory reliability, criterion validity and discriminant validity as an indicator of climate change knowledge. However, self-selection of environmentally conscious players implies limited representativeness for the general population. Suggestions for improving game design are given. The game score may represent climate change knowledge accurate enough for many applications in the social sciences and in risk communication which need continuous and current data.