Public engagement with climate change: the role of human values

Corner, Adam; Markowitz, Ezra M.; Pidgeon, Nicholas Frank

doi:10.1002/wcc.269

Cited by 299 publications

(273 citation statements)

References 93 publications

(165 reference statements)

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“…This study contributes to emerging work on people's value orientations and their engagement with climate change (see Corner et al 2014;O'Brien and Wolf 2010). Clearly, followup research is needed to shed more light on the relationship between climate information and value orientations in order to better understand to what extent the expression of values depends on information provision and under which conditions such information may be counterproductive.…”

Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

“…Of particular importance for this paper is the recurrent finding that individuals with self-transcendent values engage more in climate-friendly behavior and policy support than people with self-enhancing values (Corner et al 2014;Nilsson et al 2004;Biel 2007, 2008;Poortinga et al 2004;Steg et al 2011; see also Leiserowitz 2006). Furthermore, research suggests that existing value orientations may interact with environmental information.…”

Section: Valuesmentioning

confidence: 98%

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Local is not always better: the impact of climate information on values, behavior and policy support

Schoenefeld

McCauley

2015

J Environ Stud Sci

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In the current research, we experimentally examined the effect of providing local or global information about the impacts of climate change on individuals' perceived importance of climate change and on their willingness to take action to address it, including policy support. We examined these relationships in the context of individuals' general value orientations. Our findings, from 99 US residents, suggest that different kinds of climate information (local, global, or none) interact with values vis-à-vis our dependent variables. Specifically, while self-transcendent values predict perceived importance and pro-environmental behavior across all three information conditions, the effect on policy support is less clear. Furthermore, we detected a Breactance effect^where individuals with self-enhancing values who read local information thought that climate change was less important and were less willing to engage in pro-environmental behavior and support policy than self-enhancing individuals in the other information conditions. These results suggest that policy makers and public communicators may want to be cognizant of their audience's general value orientation. Local information may not only be ineffective but may also prove counterproductive with individuals whose value orientations are more self-enhancing than self-transcendent.

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Section: Policy Implicationsmentioning

confidence: 90%

Section: Valuesmentioning

confidence: 98%

Local is not always better: the impact of climate information on values, behavior and policy support

Schoenefeld

McCauley

2015

J Environ Stud Sci

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“…Importantly, working from this perspective, there are a number of reasons why proximising might actually have negative consequences for action 57 . First, the focal outcomes that motivate people when they think about climate change mitigation or adaptation generally correspond to their broader values and goals (e.g., caring about others and the natural environment) 58 . Following the above analysis, people who hold such values will act more in line with them when they think of climate change as a distant issue and think about it in abstract terms.…”

Section: Information For Decision-makingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychological responses to the proximity of climate change

et al. 2015

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A frequent suggestion to increase individuals' willingness to take action on climate change and to support relevant policies is to highlight its proximal consequences, that is, consequences that are close in space and time. However, previous studies that have tested this proximising approach have not revealed the expected positive effects on individual action and support for addressing climate change. We present three lines of psychological reasoning that provide compelling arguments as to why highlighting proximal impacts of climate change might not be as effective a way to increase individual mitigation and adaptation efforts as is often assumed. Our contextualisation of the proximising approach within established psychological research suggests that, depending on the particular theoretical perspective one takes to this issue, and on specific individual characteristics suggested by these perspectives, proximising can bring about the intended positive effects, can have no (visible) effect, or can even backfire. Thus, the effects of proximising are much more complex than is commonly assumed. Revealing this complexity contributes to a refined theoretical understanding of the role psychological distance plays in the context of climate change and opens up further avenues for future research and for interventions. KeywordsPsychological distance, personal experience, place attachment, threat, risk perception, defensiveness, mitigation, adaptation 3 Research on public perceptions of climate change often shows that people, at least in Western countries, typically perceive climate change as a distant threat, as something that affects strangers, and as something that happens in remote times and places, rather than in the here and now [1][2][3][4][5][6][7] (for an exception, see ref. 8 ). This perception of climate change as a distant threat is problematic because it implies little personal relevance. Low levels of personal relevance in turn are problematic because individuals' perception of being personally at risk can be an important motivation to take action against the source of that risk 9-14 .Consistent with this analysis, it has repeatedly been suggested that highlighting the proximal consequences of climate change could be an important part of strategies to engage and mobilize publics around this issue 3,[15][16][17][18][19][20] . Although the assumed psychological mechanism of proximising is often not verbalised (see also ref. 21 , where the term is used to describe a discursive strategy in which the speaker presents physically and temporally distant events as close and directly relevant to the addressee), the rationale behind proximising climate change seems to be that this approach (a) decreases the psychological distance between the issue and individuals who could or should act 17,22 and, (b) makes the consequences of climate change easier to visualise 4,23 and more personally relevant 24,25 . Moreover, proximising climate change is believed to increase (emotional) concern 16,22,26,27 and the feeling o...

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“…Norway, UK) (Corner et al 2014;Hellevik 2012). This raises an interesting paradox: public concern in many countries is decreasing while at the same time scientific knowledge and certainty about cause and effect is increasing.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Other studies indicate that adaptation is not likely to take place without stronger policy measures (Dannevig et al 2013). The lack of effective policies for tackling climate change, whether it is adaptation or mitigation, also influences how salient the issue becomes for the public (Ryghaug et al 2010;Corner et al 2014). Salience, understood as the Bimportance^individuals place on certain issues (Wlezien 2005), is strongly tied to values and norms which play a significant role in shaping how people consider risks (Thompson and Rayner 1998).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the need for adaptation in a natural resource dependent community in Northern Norway: issue salience, knowledge and values

Dannevig

Hovelsrud

2015

Climatic Change

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For society to effectively manage climate change impacts, the need to adapt must be recognized. At the same time there is a disconnect between knowledge and action on climate change. The salience of adaptation to climate change may be a precondition for action, but this issue has so far been neglected in the adaptation literature. This indicates a missing link between perception, values and world-views, on one side, and policy formation on the other. The article analyses how actors in three occupational groups in a natural resource dependent community in northern Norway perceive and respond to changes in weather and resource conditions, as well as projections for future climate. The results indicate that the need to adapt is perceived differently, if at all, amongst different actors. By drawing on concepts from governance literatures and cultural theory of risks (CTR), the paper seeks to explain this divergence in perceptions and responses amongst different actors, which can help policymakers understand when and why autonomous actors are willing to adapt. We find that adaptation to climate change cannot readily be expected among actors who fit the individualist category of CTR, who do not directly utilize scientific knowledge when in their work.

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Public engagement with climate change: the role of human values

Cited by 299 publications

References 93 publications

Local is not always better: the impact of climate information on values, behavior and policy support

Local is not always better: the impact of climate information on values, behavior and policy support

Psychological responses to the proximity of climate change

Understanding the need for adaptation in a natural resource dependent community in Northern Norway: issue salience, knowledge and values

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