Understanding (and Reducing) Inaction on Climate Change
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 12908149 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Matthew J Hornsey (0000-0003-1275-3977, The University of Queensland, corresponding author), Kelly S Fielding (0000-0001-5301-0331, The University of Queensland) |
| Year | 2019 |
| Volume | 14 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 3-35 |
| Publication date | 2019-09-05 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Issues and Policy Review (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1751-2395 • E-ISSN: 1751-2409 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/sipr.12058 |
| OpenAlex | W2972303222 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 84 |
| References cited | 84 |
For over 50 years, scientists have sounded alarms that the burning of fossil fuels is causing changes to the Earth's climate, and that failure to take action on climate change will have devastating consequences. Despite this urgency, CO2 emissions (and global temperatures) continue to climb. Progress on mitigating climate change is slowed by the stubborn persistence of climate skepticism, as well as a failure for nonskeptics to translate their concern about climate change into meaningful action. The goal of this article is to describe and synthesize research on how to understand (and reduce) this public inaction on climate change. In the first half of the article, we examine the question of how to understand (and overcome) climate change skepticism. We review international evidence regarding the role of demographics, ideologies, and conspiracist worldviews in shaping people's willingness to believe in the reality of human‐caused climate change. We then review theory and research on how to successfully capture the attention of—and change the behavior of—people who traditionally resist climate change messages, such as those high in conservatism and free‐market beliefs. In the second half of the article, we examine how to promote more climate‐friendly behaviors among people who believe in the reality of climate change. Evidence will be reviewed suggesting that many people agree that climate change is caused by humans, but are not yet willing to make the necessary investments and sacrifices to respond to this threat. We then draw on relevant literatures to critically discuss three strategies for promoting proenvironmental behavior: (i) optimistic versus pessimistic messages; (ii) in‐group versus out‐group messenger effects; and (c) the use of descriptive and injunctive norms
Action (physics · Climate change · Climate science · Economics · Environmental ethics · Epistemology · Natural resource economics · Political economy of climate change · Political science · Skepticism · Behavioral Health and Interventions · Climate Change Communication and Perception · Environmental Education and Sustainability · Psychology · Ecology
Water-Saving Attitudes in Residential Gardens
Affect and emotions as drivers of climate change perception and action
Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It
Conservative politics is more strongly associated with skepticism about science than is conservative religion - and both restrain enthusiasm more than they encourage negativity
Comparing and combining theory of planned behavior and dragons of inaction to explain pro-environmental consumption behavior
Coffee farmers’ knowledge construction about climate change
Individual differences in psychological rigidity and beliefs about system fitness predict attitudes about social determinants of disaster risk
Evaluating Environmental Contents in Comprehensive Passages in Junior Secondary School English Language Textbooks Used in Cross River State, Nigeria
The impact of tropical forests on local climate
Recommendations to improve communication effectiveness in social marketing campaigns
Science communication audiences in Lithuania
Science Identity in Undergraduates
Community resilience to flooding in the UK
Warming up
Leveraging social cognition to promote effective climate change mitigation
Approaching Climate Communication
Climate change threats and affective polarization. Exploring the role of negative emotional reactions
Global warming in the minds of Mexican higher education students
Inspiring Support for Climate Solutions
High School Students’ Motivation to Learn Climate Change Science through Educational Computer Games
The progress and trend of pro-environmental behavior research
The Practical Paradoxes of a More Inclusive Approach to Climate Change Adaptation
Disagreement among friends
When hope messages become the discursive norm
Perceived need for management interventions in the Great Barrier Reef
Sliding Doors
Public issues, policy proposals, social movements, and the interests of the Koch Brothers network of allies
Economic Inequality Brings About More Inaction Over Climate Change
Reasons to Protect Nature
An Immovable Object? In-Group Qualifiers, Credibility, and Expert Claims on Punitive Sex Crime Policy
Understanding the Paradoxical Effects of (Environmental) Activists and Their Discourses
Thunberg’s Way in the Climate Debate
Knowing-without-reaction in the face of climate change
Self-serving beliefs about science
The climate battles of ideas
Associations between conspiracism and the rejection of scientific innovations
Climate‐driven ‘species‐on‐the‐move’ provide tangible anchors to engage the public on climate change
Understanding environmental and climate imagery
When Does Hope Drive Social Change? Empirical Insights and Their Policy Implications
Political Psychology in the Digital (mis)Information age
The connections—and misconnections—between the public and politicians over climate policy
Public Communication as a Tool to Implement Environmental Policies
Framing the climate crisis
"Jakiej refleksji potrzebujemy w epoce antropocenu? „Gramatyka" wystudzania wzrostu ekonomii ekologicznej
Extending Climate Change Action to Persons with Disabilities in the Middle East and North Africa
Mortality management and climate action
Go Negative for Clicks
The times they are changing? Support for green policy measures in Germany in times of uncertainty
Participatory research on using virtual reality to teach ocean acidification
Chilly Reception
Turning a Blind Eye to Climate Change
Exploring Farmers' Intentions to Mitigate Climate Change Through the Lens of the Theory of Reasoned Goal Pursuit
Who do we trust on climate change, and why
Addressing climate inaction as our greatest threat to sustainable development
Influencia social minoritaria frente a la crisis socioambiental
Leveraging emotion for sustainable action
To get vaccinated or not? Social psychological factors associated with vaccination intent for Covid-19
Transforming the stories we tell about climate change
A sociopsychological model predicting motivation to alter behaviour to mitigate climate change
Fostering Hope
Impact of the spiritual and environmental-specific servant leadership on pro-environmental behaviors with the moderating effect of perceived organizational environmental support
Mapping the climate change attitude
Climate-related spatial reduction risk of agricultural lands on the Mediterranean coast in Türkiye and scenario-based modelling of urban growth
Ideological and Partisan Predictors of Support for Climate Change Policy
The political effects of emergency frames in sustainability
Yes, we can! The effect of collective versus individual action framing on the acceptance of hard climate adaptation policy instruments
Climate skeptics’ identity construction and (Dis)trust in science in the United States
No agency and responsibility for the privileged? Perceptions of climate action among high socioeconomic status citizens in the United Kingdom
Good news about good news? The limited impacts of informing Americans about recent success in climate change mitigation
Teaching sustainability at the high sea
Risk? Crisis? Emergency? Implications of the new climate emergency framing for governance and policy
Equipping Audiences Without Silver Bullets
A trust inoculation to protect public support of governmentally mandated actions to mitigate climate change
Ripple effects
Hope mingled with fear
Using protection motivation theory to explain Australian's motivations to engage in individual and collective climate actions
Rule-Governed Behavior and Climate Change
Just Chill! An Experimental Approach to Stereotypical Attributions Regarding Young Activists
From influencing to engagement
Defending the climate cause within the state
A toolkit for understanding and addressing climate scepticism
Psychological inoculation strategies to fight climate disinformation across 12 countries
A 27-country test of communicating the scientific consensus on climate change
Ilustración y ascesis climáticas
Fixing the communications failure
Knowledge of the Advocated Position and the Processing of In-Group and Out-Group Persuasive Messages
Motivational Interviewing
Personal Efficacy, the Information Environment, and Attitudes Toward Global Warming and Climate Change in the United States
Congruent or conflicted? The impact of injunctive and descriptive norms on environmental intentions
Dynamic Norms Promote Sustainable Behavior, Even if It Is Counternormative
Criticizing Groups from the Inside and the Outside
Integrating social identity theory and the theory of planned behaviour to explain decisions to engage in sustainable agricultural practices
Social Identity Theory and Self‐categorization Theory
A Social Identity Analysis of Climate Change and Environmental Attitudes and Behaviors
Crafting Normative Messages to Protect the Environment
The gateway belief model
Free-Market Ideology and Environmental Degradation
Theory of planned behaviour, identity and intentions to engage in environmental activism
The theory of planned behavior
Exposure to Scientific Consensus Does Not Cause Psychological Reactance
Psychological Reactance From Reading Basic Facts on Climate Change
A Focus Theory of Normative Conduct
Perceptions of climate change and willingness to save energy related to flood experience
Promoting pro-environmental action in climate change deniers
The pivotal role of perceived scientific consensus in acceptance of science
Relationships among conspiratorial beliefs, conservatism and climate scepticism across nations
Apocalypse Soon
Meta-analyses of the determinants and outcomes of belief in climate change
System Justification, the Denial of Global Warming, and the Possibility of “System-Sanctioned Change”
Dead and Alive
The Interplay Between Knowledge, Perceived Efficacy, and Concern About Global Warming and Climate Change
Nasa Faked the Moon Landing—Therefore, (Climate) Science Is a Hoax
Quantifying the consensus on anthropogenic global warming in the scientific literature
Consensus on consensus
Why being right is not enough
Reflections on climate change communication research and practice in the second decade of the 21st century
Communicating climate change
Changing Ethically Troublesome Behavior
Public Communication as a Tool to Implement Environmental Policies
Threat Without Efficacy? Climate Change on U.S. Network News
A cautionary note about messages of hope
Scepticism and uncertainty about climate change
Uncertain climate
Cool dudes
Putting the fear back into fear appeals
A social identity approach to trust
It's OK if we say it, but you can't”
Climate protection needs societal change
Affirming belief in scientific progress reduces environmentally friendly behaviour
Attitude roots and Jiu Jitsu persuasion
Fostering sustainable behavior through community-based social marketing
Elite cues, media coverage, and public concern
Processing of persuasive in-group messages
Solution aversion
Motivated inference
Biased assimilation and attitude polarization
Party Over Policy
Motivated skepticism
Mapping the moral domain
Cultural cognition of scientific consensus
Normative Social Influence is Underdetected
Fear Won't Do It
The social consequences of conspiracism
The case for motivated reasoning
The organisation of denial
Australian politicians' beliefs about climate change
The Unbearable Lightness of Politics
The Politicization of Climate Change and Polarization in the American Public's Views of Global Warming, 2001-2010
A Room with a Viewpoint
When Morality Opposes Justice
| Unique citing works | 84 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 12 |
| Citation span | 2019 - 2026 (8) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 83 |