Scientists just found a way to break through climate apathy: Boiling down data into a binary — a stark this or that — can help break through apathy about climate change.

"Scientist finally realize most people have smooth brain"

The reason I think this is mildly interesting is that the article's main revelation is to just make the data a "this or that" presentation. They aren't changing the information, they're merely changing the presentation of how the data is displayed to get people to see what the scientists are seeing. It's literally a "Keep It Simple, Stupid" approach.

Liu worked with professors at Princeton to test how people responded to two different graphs. One showed winter temperatures of a fictional town gradually rising over time, while the other presented the same warming trend in a black-or-white manner: The lake either froze in any given year, or it didn’t. People who saw the second chart perceived climate change as causing more abrupt changes.

The findings suggest that if scientists want to increase public urgency around climate change, they should highlight clear, concrete shifts instead of slow-moving trends. That could include the loss of white Christmases or outdoor summer activities canceled because of wildfire smoke.

Previous research has found that as the climate warms, people adjust their sense of what seems normal based on weather from the past two to eight years, a phenomenon known as “shifting baselines.”