Fig. 1: General views on climate change and indifference valuations.

In A, the share of participants that chose the respective Likert response item, separated by samples, for each question is plotted. The Likert scale responses range from −3 (not a serious problem at all/very unlikely) to +3 (a very serious problem / very likely). Darker areas indicate a higher share of respondents, with the numbers in the areas depicting its share. “F” and “C” stand for financial professionals and climate experts, respectively. Two-sided Mann–Whitney U-tests are reported. In B, average euro valuations for a 10 ton carbon offset for each sample, the associated 95% confidence interval, and the respective beliefs about the other group are shown. Indifference valuations are calculated as the midpoint between the last payment the respondent still forgoes for the carbon offset and the first payment they prefer over the offset. For those individuals always selecting the individual payment or always opting for the carbon offset, valuations of 0 and 360, respectively, are assumed. With respect to second-order beliefs, “C->F”, for instance, stands for climate experts’ beliefs about financial professionals' indifference valuations. The t-statistics and the p-values of two-sided t-tests are shown.