Cognitive and affective risk judgements related to climate change

Sundblad, Eva-Lotta; Biel, Anders; Gärling, Tommy

doi:10.1016/j.jenvp.2007.01.003

Cited by 251 publications

(244 citation statements)

References 14 publications

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“…First, among interviewees, women were more likely to cite Collapse narratives than men. This result is consistent with our expectations, given literature suggesting that women perceive environmental and other risks as more worrisome or problematic than men (Slovic 1999, Loewenstein et al 2001, Sundblad et al 2007). Second, those respondents affiliated with local, sustainable agriculture were more likely to cite Localism as an important change theme.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

“…Studies in the literature on perceptions of risk suggest that "men tend to judge risks as smaller and less problematic than do women" (Slovic 1999:692), and women may create more vivid imagery than men when they worry (Loewenstein et al 2001). Sundblad et al (2007) found that women worry more about climate change than men, accounting for education level and knowledge of climate change. We wanted to know whether these differences were reflected in which themes of change women and men perceived as important for the future.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Local perspectives and global archetypes in scenario development

Wardropper¹,

Gillon²,

Mase³

et al. 2016

E&S

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ABSTRACT. Contrasting social-ecological scenarios can help stakeholders envision potential futures and navigate change and uncertainty. Scenario developers integrate stakeholder perceptions into storylines to increase scenario relevance and plausibility while relying on archetypes of change from scenario literature to enrich narratives. This research examines the contributions of local perspectives and global archetypes to scenario development through a case study of a regional scenario project, Yahara 2070, in Wisconsin, USA. Interviews with 50 Yahara watershed stakeholders and 5 members of the project's scenario development team were examined to compare themes from scenario archetypes with local perspectives on how change is expected to occur. We next examined how these two sources of inspiration for trajectories of change were used in the development of the Yahara 2070 scenarios. Both global archetypes and local stakeholders emphasized social values, market forces, and policy reform as influences in determining the future, which were reflected in Yahara 2070. However, stakeholders were less likely to mention institutional breakdown, an important theme from the global scenarios literature that was included in Yahara 2070. This research offers a new approach to analyzing similarities and differences between scenarios' narratives and local perspectives. Scenario development may involve tensions between the goals of reflecting stakeholder views and including narratives from the global scenarios literature that may be useful for creating divergent model trajectories and addressing dramatic change into the future. To improve scenario development, scenario projects should document the development process in academic and nonacademic venues, explicitly highlighting sources and constraints in storyline development.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 93%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Local perspectives and global archetypes in scenario development

Wardropper¹,

Gillon²,

Mase³

et al. 2016

E&S

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This logic is supported by several studies suggesting that climate change knowledge is positively correlated with climate change concern [1][2][3][4] and others that have linked climate change concern to both individual and collective climate action [3,5]. In fact, one US study found that concern was the most important predictor of support for national policies aimed at addressing climate change [6].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 80%

Motivating Action through Fostering Climate Change Hope and Concern and Avoiding Despair among Adolescents

2015

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Efforts to build climate change concern seem warranted to overcome apathy and promote action. However, research suggests that these efforts can backfire by breeding despair, denial and inaction. This may be especially true among younger audiences, as despair is highest among those who view climate challenges as out of their control, and children generally have lower perceived and actual control than adults in political and personal arenas. Though many studies have documented feelings of despair and sadness among younger audiences, few have explored how climate change hope may counteract despair and encourage productive responses to climate change concern. This study examined how climate change hope, despair, and concern predict pro-environmental behavior with a quantitative survey of a random sample of middle school students in North Carolina, USA (n = 1486). We did not find an interaction between climate change hope and concern or despair, but instead found climate change hope and concern independently and positively related to behavior and despair negatively related to behavior. These results suggest that climate change concern among K-12 audiences may be an important antecedent to behavior which does not dampen the positive impacts of hope. Further, rather than mitigating the negative effects of climate change despair, hope may be an independent predecessor to behavior. Students at Title I (a measure of low socioeconomic status) schools were less likely to engage in pro-environmental behaviors, suggesting climate literacy efforts should target schools with lower levels of socioeconomic status specifically.

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“…Small scale surveys in the UK, USA and Sweden (Lorenzoni et al, 2006, Sundblad et al, 2007 and research with vulnerable communities in the UK (Bickerstaff et al, 2006) indicate that sea level rise, coastal flooding and erosion are associated with climate change by the public at large, but these have limited personal salience. Similarly, the limited evidence on engagement with less publicly-visible impacts, such as ocean acidification, suggests that these are psychologically distant (personally irrelevant, emotionally unengaging, e.g.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%