The Social and Psychological Functions of Responses to Climate Change

347 Pages·2013·5.19 MB·English

School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
Department of Health Sciences

The Social and Psychological Functions of Responses to Climate Change

Zoe Leviston

This thesis is presented for the Degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
of
Curtin University

March 2013

Declaration

To the best of my knowledge and belief this thesis contains no material previously
published by any other person except where due acknowledgment has been made.

This thesis contains no material which has been accepted for the award of any other
degree or diploma in any university.

Signature:

Date: 19th of June 2013
Abstract
Climate change is the most pressing environmental threat faced by humans, yet responses
– individually, collectively, and politically – have frequently lacked urgency. Why a threat of
such magnitude should meet with inaction is a topic of growing conjecture among social
science researchers. Social psychologists in particular have increasingly focused on the
possible psychological mechanisms underlying denial and scepticism of anthropogenic
climate change. I argue that all responses to climate change can be considered rational and
adaptive, because these responses (be they opinions, emotions, or behaviour) afford the
individual functional value.

In this thesis, I examine what underlies the discordance between climate change threat and
response by applying a functional analysis to responses associated with climate change.
This analysis is theoretically guided by a motivated social cognition approach. I use the term
to refer to theories and perspectives that assume that people’s values, attitudes, and
beliefs have motivational underpinnings, and satisfy certain psychological and social needs.
These motivations affect reasoning and belief and attitude formation by biasing how
information is processed. The approach incorporates accounts such as motivated
reasoning, interpersonal and social identity theories, social and system-level legitimacy
theories, moral disengagement, and Terror Management Theory. Drawing upon these
accounts, I construct a framework detailing the various goals and needs that responses to
climate change might function to fulfil. Five main functional areas are identified: the
reduction of internal psychological discomfort, self-image and self-esteem maintenance,
the maximisation of positive affect, social-system justification, and effort reduction. To test
aspects of the framework, I conducted two online national surveys: one in July-August 2010
(N = 5036), the other in July-August 2011 (N = 5030). A total of 1355 respondents
completed both surveys. Respondents were asked about their beliefs, opinions, attitudes,
and behaviours relevant to climate change, as well as individual difference measures, their
levels of support for climate change policy, their emotional responses, and personal and
image associations with climate change. In addition, four workshops (total N = 52) were
undertaken in December 2010 and March 2011. These workshops were designed to elicit
implicit associations and attendant emotions associated with climate change imagery
drawn from the national surveys.
Analyses of national survey data revealed several key findings:
 The scientific consensus that climate change is happening, and is mostly caused by
human activity, is not reflected in the opinions of the broader community;
 While opinions about the causes of climate change are important in understanding
pro-environmental behaviour, considerable variation in behaviour exists within
opinion-types;
 Negative high-arousal emotions are linked to climate change acceptance and pro-
environmental behaviour;
 Levels of moral engagement are central to action on climate change, and mediate
the link between opinions and behaviour;
 Those sceptical of climate change still consider big-polluting countries and multi-
national corporations as partly responsible for both causing and responding to it;
 Estimates about what the Australian community thinks about climate change differ
markedly from actual opinions, and nearly everybody overestimates the levels of
‘climate change denial’ in the Australian community;
 Underlying ideological values associated with system justification explain
relationships with climate change responses above and beyond political
preferences.

Analyses of both the survey and workshop data revealed that politicians dominate who we
associate with climate change, while scientists and people close to us are less commonly
associated with climate change. Images commonly associated with climate change were
broad and remote, although national-level impacts of climate change were salient for many
people.

Together, the results support the idea that responses function to fulfil different needs and
goals for individuals, such as a need for social support, the negation of guilt and existential
anxiety, maintaining a coherent self-identity, feeling morally adequate, and seeing
prevailing social and economic systems as just. I conclude the thesis by modelling the
psychological processes involved in fulfilling these needs and goals, and the expressions
through which they might be observed with respect to responses to climate change. In
particular, the model articulates how the implicit associations of individuals are shaped by
societal, group, and intra-individual forces, and by the biased searching of sets of rules and
beliefs. A series of recommendations for climate communicators is provided, including
framing climate change in such a way as to appeal to competing needs and goals
concurrently, alongside an overview of future research directions, and an explanation of
why I probably won’t ride my bicycle to work tomorrow.
Acknowledgements
I would like to thank some of the many people who provided me with support and advice
through the course of completing my thesis.
Firstly I wish to thank my supervisory team. To Brian Bishop for his unfaltering
unflappability in the face of my many manic ramblings; anyone who quotes Jethro Tull to
elucidate complex social phenomena was bound to be a good fit for me. To Lauren Hewitt,
who provided grounded advice when it was most needed. To Carmen Lawrence and Kevin
Runions, whose decision to leave the country in 2010 was entirely unrelated to my work, I
am assured. And to Iain Walker, without whose wisdom, guidance, and support, this thesis
(and my heid) would undoubtedly be an impoverished version.
Thank you also to the 52 people who gave up their time to attend my workshops, and to
the many thousands who completed my surveys; the willingness for so many to genuinely
and generously participate in social research repeatedly surprises and heartens me. Thanks
also to Sam Dier and his team from the Online Research Unit, for meeting my obsessive
formatting pedantry with calm and patience.
To the Climate Adaptation Flagship at the CSIRO, who funded this research, and to the
leadership and support of Andrew Ash, Mark Stafford-Smith, and Bryson Bates.
To my colleagues at the Social and Behavioural Sciences group at the CSIRO, for their
understanding and encouragement. Special thanks to Sorada Tapsuwan and Jenn Price,
who helped me run the workshops and transcribe the discussions appearing in Chapter 8.
My many long discussions with Jenn about environmental attitudes also bear their mark on
the ensuing pages. Thank you too to Peta Dzidic from Curtin University and escapee of
CSIRO for your encouragement and your helpfully thorough review comments!
And finally to all my family and friends, particularly Giles, Graeme, Renae, and Mike, for
their unwavering encouragement, their willingness to be used as guinea pigs for strange
questions and odd photos, and for being the sort of people who would never ask “why
bother?”.
The following publications have emanated from this PhD:
Refereed articles
Leviston, Z., Walker, I., & Morwinski, S. (in press). Your opinion on climate change might not
be as common as you think. Nature Climate Change. Advance online publication.
doi:10.1038/nclimate1743

Leviston, Z., & Walker, I. (2012). Beliefs and denials about climate change: An Australian
perspective. Ecopsychology, 4, 277-285. doi:10.1089/eco.2012.0051
Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................ 1
1.1 Psychological Investigations into Climate Change Responses .................................... 2
1.1.1 Research on Denial, Scepticism and Maladaptation ........................................ 5
1.1.2 Some Limitations of the Denial, Scepticism, and Maladaptation Focus .......... 9
1.1.3 A functional approach to understanding climate change responses ............. 11
1.2 Thesis Structure ......................................................................................................... 13
CHAPTER 2. MOTIVATIONAL ACCOUNTS OF FUNCTIONS: A THEORETICAL REVIEW ......... 15
2.1.1 Motivated Social Cognition ............................................................................ 15
2.2 Stress and Coping Models ......................................................................................... 16
2.2.1 The Functions in Stress & Coping Models ...................................................... 17
2.3 Cognitive Dissonance Theory .................................................................................... 17
2.3.1 The Functions in Cognitive Dissonance Theory .............................................. 19
2.4 Motivated Reasoning ................................................................................................ 20
2.4.1 Motivated Reasoning and Emotion Regulation .............................................. 22
2.4.2 The Functions in Motivated Reasoning .......................................................... 22
2.5 Theories of Interpersonal and Social Identity ........................................................... 24
2.5.1 The Functions in Theories of Interpersonal and Social Identity ..................... 26
2.6 Terror Management Theory ...................................................................................... 27
2.6.1 The Functions in Terror Management Theory ............................................... 29
2.7 Theories of Social-System Legitimacy ....................................................................... 29
2.7.1 Social Dominance Theory ............................................................................... 30
2.7.2 System Justification Theory ............................................................................ 31
2.7.3 The Functions in Social-System Legitimacy Theories ..................................... 32
2.8 Moral Disengagement ............................................................................................... 33
2.8.1 Misconstrual of Reprehensible Behaviour ..................................................... 34
2.8.2 Obscuring or Distorting Harmful Effects ........................................................ 35
2.8.3 Reducing Identification with Targets of Harmful Acts ................................... 36
2.8.4 The Functions of Moral Disengagement ........................................................ 36
2.9 Toward a Functional Framework............................................................................... 37
CHAPTER 3. FUNCTIONAL ANALYSES AND METHODOLOGICAL OVERVIEW ...................... 41
3.1 Previous Functional Analyses .................................................................................... 41
3.2 Some Strengths and Limitations of Previous Approaches ........................................ 44
3.3 Method ..................................................................................................................... 46
3.3.1 National surveys ............................................................................................. 46
3.3.2 Image Association Workshops ....................................................................... 51
CHAPTER 4. CLIMATE CHANGE IN CONTEXT: AUSTRALIANS’ GENERAL RESPONSES TO
CLIMATE CHANGE .................................................................................................................. 53
4.1.1 Climate Change in Australia ........................................................................... 54
4.1.2 Australians’ Opinions on the Causes of Climate Change ............................... 56
4.1.3 Research Questions........................................................................................ 59
4.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 59
4.2.1 Surveys and Participants ................................................................................ 59
4.2.2 Measures ........................................................................................................ 61
4.3 Results ....................................................................................................................... 67
4.3.1 Beliefs and Opinions about Climate Change .................................................. 67
4.3.2 Stability of Opinion-Type ............................................................................... 69
4.3.3 Pro-environmental Behaviours ...................................................................... 71
4.3.4 Opinions and Pro-environmental Behaviours ................................................ 76
4.3.5 Self-referent Attitudes to Climate Change..................................................... 76
4.3.6 Political Preference and Climate Change Opinions and Behaviours .............. 78
4.3.7 Emotional Responses ..................................................................................... 79
4.3.8 Social Attitudes to Climate Change ................................................................ 83
4.3.9 Self Descriptions ............................................................................................. 85
4.4 Discussion .................................................................................................................. 87
4.5 Conclusion ................................................................................................................. 91
CHAPTER 5. MORAL RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE .................................................... 92
5.1.1 Climate Change as a Moral Issue ................................................................... 92
5.1.2 The Functions of Morality, Self-identity, and Self-esteem ............................ 93
5.1.3 Moral Disengagement .................................................................................... 95
5.1.4 Hypotheses..................................................................................................... 98
5.2 Method ..................................................................................................................... 99
5.2.1 Measures ........................................................................................................ 99
5.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 101
5.3.1 Ratings of Responsibility .............................................................................. 101
5.3.2 Opinion-Types, Moral Disengagement, and Pro-environmental Behaviour 104
5.3.3 Moral Engagement as Mediator between Responsibility and Behaviour .... 108
5.3.4 Longitudinal Changes ................................................................................... 110
5.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 114
CHAPTER 6. CLIMATE CHANGE AND CONSENSUS ESTIMATES......................................... 119
6.1.1 The False Consensus Effect .......................................................................... 119
6.1.2 Pluralistic Ignorance ..................................................................................... 122
6.1.3 Hypotheses ................................................................................................... 123
6.2 Method .................................................................................................................... 124
6.2.1 National Surveys ........................................................................................... 124
6.2.2 Measures ...................................................................................................... 124
6.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 125
6.3.1 Climate Change Opinion-Type and False Consensus Effects ........................ 125
6.3.2 False Consensus and Trust ........................................................................... 129
6.3.3 False Consensus Effects and Motivated Social Cognition ............................ 130
6.3.4 False Consensus Effects and Stability of Opinions ....................................... 131
6.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 135
CHAPTER 7. THE SYSTEM-LEGITIMISING FUNCTIONS OF RESPONSES TO CLIMATE CHANGE
...................................................................................................................... 139
7.1.1 System Justification ...................................................................................... 139
7.1.2 System Justification and Climate Change ..................................................... 141
7.1.3 System Justification, Climate Change, and Policy Support .......................... 142
7.1.4 Social Dominance Theory, Climate Change, and Policy Support .................. 143
7.1.5 Research Questions ...................................................................................... 145
7.2 Method .................................................................................................................... 145
7.2.1 Measures ...................................................................................................... 146
7.3 Results ..................................................................................................................... 149
7.3.1 System-justifying Tendencies, Negative Affect, and Moral Engagement .... 152
7.3.2 System-justifying Tendencies and Policy Support ........................................ 154
7.3.3 The Mediating Influence of Moral Justifications and Moral Engagement on
Policy Support ............................................................................................................... 156
7.4 Discussion ................................................................................................................ 160
7.4.1 Conclusion .................................................................................................... 164
CHAPTER 8. CLIMATE CHANGE ASSOCIATIONS ................................................................ 166
8.1.1 Associations and Climate Change ................................................................. 166
8.1.2 Associations and Motivated Social Cognition .............................................. 167