The nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of climate change

Abstract

Following a previous 2014 review of perceived personal experience of climate change, the authors review relevant research published or reported between January 2014 and mid‐year 2019. The review findings suggest that the nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of natural environment changes, conditions, and events deemed to be likely consequences of global climate change have been problematically conceptualized, researched, reported, and understood by many climate change scientists and by reporters of climate change science and their audiences. The nature, psychological significance, and psychological adaptation and issue engagement influence of personal experience of perceived environmental manifestations of climate change are arguably central considerations with respect to the human dimensions of climate change. These matters encompass public understanding of climate change science, both internal and external adaptation processes, and the psychological impacts of the ongoing stressor of climate change. They also affect issue engagement and behavioral change. It is increasingly necessary that existing issues with discipline‐based assumptive worlds, constructs and measures—and often unclear research and policy questions and objectives—be identified, clarified, and addressed. This particularly matters when researchers and policy makers are addressing public risk perceptions, understandings, and responses to global climate change, ideally to inform and enhance policies directed at climate change mitigation and adaptation, or, alternatively framed, directed towards public issue engagement and ‘psychologically significant’ as well as ‘environmentally significant’ behavioral change. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change

Psychometric Properties of the Climate Change Worry Scale

“…This was a deliberate choice because personal worry “is an active emotional state that is often closely linked to adaptive behavioral responses aimed at reducing a particular threat, whereas broad concern is not and can be expressed without any particular motivational or emotional content” [ 17 , 18 , 23 , 41 , 42 ]. Second, a focus on personal worry about climate change is consistent with research suggesting that people can personally experience proximal impacts of climate change and that such experiences are good predictions of climate change risk perceptions [ 20 , 41 , 58 ]. Thus, the CCWS items are limited to proximal and personal worry about climate change.…”

“…From 2017 to 2019, climate change and the occurrences of severe and extreme weather have resulted in nearly 34,000 print and online articles in over 200 newspapers worldwide and approximately 3000 television and stories according to the Ebsco Newspaper Source Plus database. If people have not experienced climate change directly, then there is an increasing likelihood that they will have learned about it through the media [ 20 ]. Third, fear pertains to the anxiety and apprehension that comes with an imminent threat [ 51 ].…”

“…Third, additional research should be conducted to explore the interrelationships of fear, anxiety, depression, and worry within the realm of climate change. Although the distinctions between these constructs may be somewhat clearer in the clinical psychology literature [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 ], the nature of the constructs and their interrelations within climate psychology warrants further theoretical and empirical research [ 25 ]. Specifically, can climate change with its multiple effects and impacts by themselves lead to anxiety and depressive disorders?…”

“…Trauma, anxiety, fear, worry, and depression may accompany the short- or long-term effects of climate change [ 12 , 13 , 16 , 17 , 18 , 19 ]. Anxiety and fear may stem from the experience of extreme weather [ 20 , 21 , 22 ]. In addition, the impacts of climate change on ecosystems and, consequently, upon human cultures may underly feelings of dread and anxiety about the climate-related uncertainties that may be ahead [ 17 , 23 , 24 , 25 ].…”

Subjective Attribution of Infectious Disease Outbreaks to Climate Change is Associated with Mitigation Behavioural Intentions and COVID-19 Recovery Policy Support

“…A burgeoning number of studies have evaluated how public experiences climate change and how such an experience shapes individuals' beliefs, behaviours, and mitigation policy support (Akerlof et al, 2013;Demski et al, 2017;Linden, 2014;Marlon et al, 2019;Myers et al, 2013;Ogunbode et al, 2019;Osaka & Bellamy, 2020;Reser & Bradley, 2020;Zanocco et al, 2019). The primary rationale of these studies is that personal experience activates experiential processing of complex scientific information such as climate change, which provides a more powerful stimulus for public understanding and engagement with the issue (e.g., Marx et al, 2007;Weber, 2006).…”