Regional variation in perceptions about climate change

Hamilton, Lawrence C.; Keim, Barry D.

doi:10.1002/joc.1930

Cited by 204 publications

(201 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…Consistent with previous work (see Leiserowitz 2006;Semenza et al 2008), we observed that people with higher levels of education perceive a lower risk associated with climate change. Our finding on spatial (regional, rural-urban) differentials in perceived climate change is also supported in the extant literature (see Thomas et al 2007;Hamilton and Keim 2009;Sanchez et al 2012). The significance of coping capacity in terms of self-rated ability to handle work pressure and responsibilities as well as self-rated ability to handle personal pressure and unexpected difficulties suggest the importance and complexity of the two psychosocial factors in shaping perception of climate change.…”

Section: Multinomial Logistic Regressionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Monitored versus experience-based perceptions of environmental change: evidence from coastal Tanzania

Armah

Luginaah

Chuenpagdee

et al. 2015

Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences

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The impacts of climate change are likely to exacerbate many problems that coastal areas already face. In this study, we used multinomial logistic regression to examine human perception of climate change based on a cross-sectional survey of 1253 individuals in coastal regions of Tanzania. This was complemented with time series analysis of 50-year meteorological data. The results indicate that self-rated ability to handle work pressure, self-rated ability to handle personal pressure and unexpected difficulties, age, region and educational status were significant predictors of perceived temperature change unlike ethnicity and gender. A disproportionately large percentage of respondents of all ages indicated that temperature was getting hotter between the past 10 and 30 years. This observation was supported by the time series analysis. Although respondents also alluded to changes in rainfall patterns in the past 10 -30 years, time series analysis of rainfall revealed a different scenario except for Mtwara region of Tanzania. Because there is agreement between respondents' perceptions of temperature and available scientific climatic evidence over the 50-year period, this study argues that when meteorological records are incomplete or unavailable, local perceptions of climatic changes can be used to complement scientific climatic evidence. Based on the spatial differentials in climate change perception observed in this study, there is opportunity for a more locally oriented adaptation dimension to climate policy integration, which has hitherto been underserved by both academics and policymakers.

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Section: Multinomial Logistic Regressionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Monitored versus experience-based perceptions of environmental change: evidence from coastal Tanzania

Armah

Luginaah

Chuenpagdee

et al. 2015

Journal of Integrative Environmental Sciences

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“…Recent studies, however, find evidence that people's personal experience of natural hazards or climate change 2 are related to their attitude on climate change and climate policy (e.g., Akerlofa et al 2013;Donner and McDaniels 2013;Hamilton and Keim 2009;Howe et al 2013;Leiserowitz 2006;Myers et al 2013;Spence et al 2011Spence et al , 2012Weber 2010). Spence et al (2011), for example, find that those who have experienced flooding express more concern over climate change and that this translates into a 1 There is some evidence for risk denial when facing natural hazards.…”

Section: Natural Hazards Climate Change and Perceptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate change, natural hazards, and risk perception: the role of proximity and personal experience

2014

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Understanding public risk perception related to possible consequences of climate change is of paramount importance. Not only does risk perception have an important role in shaping climate policy, it is also central in generating support for initiatives for adaptation and mitigation. In order to influence public knowledge and opinion, there is a need to know more about why people have diverging attitudes and perceptions related to climate change and its possible consequences. By using representative survey data for Norway and multivariate analysis, the authors of this article show that differences in attitudes and perceptions are partially explained by factors such as gender, educational background, and people's political preferences. However, an important factor

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“…The relationships between exposure to extreme weather events and the way people feel about climate change and possible response strategies becomes more consistent when an additional factor is taken into account: namely, how individuals interpret such "climate signals" 27,39 . People who report having experienced changes or events in the natural environment that they think were caused by climate change are more likely to believe that climate change is relevant to their local area and themselves 42 than people who did not report such experience.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To illustrate, one study found that Britons who had recently experienced flooding (a weatherrelated phenomenon expected to occur more frequently in Britain because of climate change) perceived their local area to be more at risk from climate change, were more concerned about climate change impacts, had higher confidence in their ability to mitigate climate change, and were more willing to reduce their energy use in order to mitigate climate change than those who had not recently experienced flooding 26 . While some studies have revealed similar patterns 34-36 , other work suggests that experiencing the impacts of extreme weather events does not necessarily increase concern and the willingness to respond to climate change 37,38 .The relationships between exposure to extreme weather events and the way people feel about climate change and possible response strategies becomes more consistent when an additional factor is taken into account: namely, how individuals interpret such "climate signals" 27,39 . People who report having experienced changes or events in the natural environment that they think were caused by climate change are more likely to believe that climate change is relevant to their local area and themselves 42 than people who did not report such experience.…”

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confidence: 98%

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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Regional variation in perceptions about climate change

Cited by 204 publications

References 22 publications

Monitored versus experience-based perceptions of environmental change: evidence from coastal Tanzania

Monitored versus experience-based perceptions of environmental change: evidence from coastal Tanzania

Climate change, natural hazards, and risk perception: the role of proximity and personal experience

Psychological responses to the proximity of climate change

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