Diverse segments of the US public underestimate the environmental concerns of minority and low-income Americans

Significance Perceived norms (e.g., beliefs about the consensus views of others) have been shown to predict a broad range of proenvironmental behaviors. We document widespread underestimation of the environmental concerns of a broad range of sociodemographic groups among the US public. This underestimation was largest for judgments of minorities’ and low-income Americans’ concerns—groups that indicate high levels of environmental concern in public opinion surveys—and tracked with stereotypes of environmentalists as white and highly educated, similarly widely shared across demographic groups. These findings point to false beliefs about the environmental concerns of vulnerable populations as a potential impediment to addressing environmental inequities and broadening public participation in environmental decision making.