Cardiff University | Prifysgol Caerdydd ORCA
Online Research @ Cardiff 
WelshClear Cookie - decide language by browser settings

When worry about climate change leads to climate action: how values, worry and personal responsibility relate to various climate actions

Bouman, Thijs, Verschoor, Mark, Albers, Casper J., Böhm, Gisela, Fisher, Stephen D., Poortinga, Wouter ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6926-8545, Whitmarsh, Lorraine ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9054-1040 and Steg, Linda 2020. When worry about climate change leads to climate action: how values, worry and personal responsibility relate to various climate actions. Global Environmental Change 62 , 102061. 10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2020.102061

[thumbnail of Bouman et al 2020 When worry about climate change leads to climate action (preprint).pdf]
Preview
PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version
Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives.

Download (1MB) | Preview

Abstract

The IPCC's report on Global Warming of 1.5°C positioned climate change as one of the most worrying issues mankind has ever faced. Although many people worry about climate change, there is still much unknown about the origins and outcomes of worry about climate change; particularly, whether and how it can motivate specific and personal climate actions. The current paper investigates this critical relationship with data from the European Social Survey Round 8 (44,387 respondents from 23 countries). As expected, the more individuals worried about climate change, the more likely they were to take and support climate action. Yet, the process through which this association occurred differed between actions. Specifically, worry was both directly and indirectly, via feelings of personal responsibility to reduce climate change, associated with climate policy support; whereas worry was mostly indirectly associated with personal climate mitigation behaviours, via personal responsibility. In addition, worry about climate change appears partly rooted in biospheric values (i.e., caring about nature and the environment), and biospheric values were also clearly, directly and positively related to personal climate mitigation behaviours. The relationships were highly consistent across countries but varied somewhat in size. The results show how generic feelings about climate change can directly and indirectly affect both climate policy support and personal climate mitigation behaviours, thereby providing critical insights for science and policy making.

Item Type: Article
Date Type: Publication
Status: Published
Schools: Psychology
Architecture
Publisher: Elsevier
ISSN: 0959-3780
Date of First Compliant Deposit: 16 April 2020
Date of Acceptance: 22 February 2020
Last Modified: 07 Nov 2023 08:25
URI: https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/131033

Citation Data

Cited 96 times in Scopus. View in Scopus. Powered By Scopus® Data

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item Edit Item

Downloads

Downloads per month over past year

View more statistics