When Truth Is Personally Inconvenient, Attitudes Change

Abstract

A naturalistic investigation of New Jersey residents, both before and after they experienced Hurricanes Irene and Sandy, examined support for politicians committed or opposed to policies designed to combat climate change. At Time 1, before both hurricanes, participants showed negative implicit attitudes toward a green politician, but at Time 2, after the hurricanes, participants drawn from the same cohort showed a reversed automatic preference. Moreover, those who were significantly affected by Hurricane Sandy were especially likely to implicitly prefer the green politician, and implicit attitudes were the best predictor of voting after the storms, whereas explicit climate-change beliefs was the best predictor before the storms. In concert, the results suggest that direct experience with extreme weather can increase pro-environmentalism, and further support conceptualizing affective experiences as a source of implicit attitudes.

Pro-Environmental Behavior: The Role of Public Perception in Infrastructure and the Social Factors for Sustainable Development

“…Several empirical studies have found that the past experience of adverse climate phenomena can influence levels of knowledge and attitudes related to climate change and other environmental issues [15][16][17]. However, Whitmarsh [5] has found the opposite empirical result, that is, flood victims and non-victims have the same level of understanding of climate change.…”

Seeing Green: A Perceptual Model of Identity-Based Climate Change Judgments

“…Associated weather events range from slight temperature changes to extreme storms. Humans are capable of perceiving even minor temperature changes and increase 555 their intentions to act after being exposed to extreme weather events (Broomell, Budescu, & Por, 2015;Rudman, McLean, & Bunzl, 2013;Spence et al, 2011). We argue that perceptions of these local climate change-associated weather events are guided by top-down processes, modulated by political identity.…”

Understanding the Human Factor of the Energy Transition: Mechanisms Underlying Energy-Relevant Decisions and Behaviors

“…For example, people who are more knowledgeable about climate change and the causes of climate change are generally more concerned about climate change (Sunblad et al, 2009;Tobler et al, 2012;Guy et al, 2014). People with direct experiences of consequences related to climate change are more concerned about problems related to climate change, and more willing to reduce their energy use (Spence et al, 2011;Akerlof et al, 2013;Rudman et al, 2013). Individuals with right-of-centre political views and those who emphasize individual autonomy rather than collective ties are more likely to reject mainstream climate science knowledge (Kahan et al, 2010;.…”