The Hoosier Life Survey: Examining the impact of 2020 on Hoosiers: COVID, Black Lives Matter, and Climate Change in Indiana

Abstract

The Hoosier Life Survey (HLS) is the nation’s most comprehensive statewide public-opinion survey of environmental change to date. The HLS addresses how environmental changes—particularly extreme weather events—are perceived, how they affect people in their homes and towns, what Hoosiers are doing about it, and what they expect for the future.

In this report, our central aim is to document how Hoosiers’ attitudes have changed after living through the pandemic year of 2020, including how their views on climate change have shifted. We do so by taking advantage of and building upon our recent work. The Environmental Resilience Institute at Indiana University fielded and completed a statewide general public survey between 2019 and early (pre-pandemic) 2020, called the Hoosier Life Survey.