Undesirable effects of threatening climate change information: A cross-cultural study
Open accessAbstract
Why is the fight against climate change so challenging? Research suggests that climate change information may trigger symbolic defense strategies such as derogative outgroup behaviors (e.g., ethnocentrism) instead of direct attempts to address the problem itself (e.g., proenvironmental behavior). Ingroup affirmation may help decrease symbolic responses. We conducted a 2 (Affirmation: ingroup vs. no affirmation) × 2 (Message: threat vs. control) × 2 (Nation: Austria vs. Argentina) experiment ( N = 243) to assess responses to climate change information (direct and symbolic) in participants from individualist and collectivist cultures. Participants responded with higher levels of ethnocentrism and a lower intention to engage in proenvironmental behavior after reading climate change information. This effect was significant in Austria. Using ingroup affirmation as an intervention tended to foster rather than reduce ethnocentrism. Thus, across cultures people resolve climate change threat in symbolic ways rather than by trying to address the problem itself.
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Some reviewed studies had participants envision climate change threat, at times with detailed prompts such as rising sea levels from melting ice caps, food scarcity, droughts, and floods.
“Some studies had participants envision climate change threat, at times with detailed prompts - rising sea levels from melting ice caps, food scarcity, droughts, floods (Uhl et al., 2018) - while others referred to climate change threats in near vs. future scenarios (e.g., 50 vs. 200 years from now; Lifshin et al., 2016).”
From Mortality management and climate action: A review and reference for using Terror Management Theory methods in interdisciplinary environmental research (2022) · cites this paper as Uhl et al., 2018
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Two Decades of Terror Management Theory: A Meta-Analysis of Mortality Salience Research
Burke, B. L., Martens, A., & Faucher, E. H. (2010) · Personality and Social Psychology Review · doi:10.1177/1088868309352321 · Cited by 1,188 · cited 3× · see citing works
“A large body of research has shown that in individualist cultures, a symbolic response to existential threat confrontation predominates (Burke et al., 2010; Jonas et al., 2014).”
BackgroundMethodDecolonizing Psychological Science: Introduction to the Special Thematic Section
Adams, G., Dobles, I., Gómez, L. H., Kurtiş, T., & Molina, L. E. (2015) · Journal of Social and Political Psychology · doi:10.5964/jspp.v3i1.564 · Cited by 373 · see citing works
Čehajić-Clancy, S., Effron, D. A., Halperin, E., Liberman, V., & Ross, L. D. (2011) · Journal of Personality and Social Psychology · doi:10.1037/a0023936 · Cited by 221 · see citing works
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Smith, L. K. M., Ross, H. C., Shouldice, S. A., & Wolfe, S. E. (2022) · WIREs Climate Change · doi:10.1002/wcc.776 · Cited by 36 · see citing works
Guthrie, D. (2023) · Perspectives on Psychological Science · doi:10.1177/17456916221093613 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Valmori, A., Carraro, L., Guidetti, M., Lenzi, M., & Castelli, L. (2024) · Current Psychology · doi:10.1007/s12144-024-06195-y · Cited by 5 · see citing works
- Authors
- Uhl, I., Klackl, J., Hansen, N., & Jonas, E.
- Affiliations
- University of Salzburg, Austria
- University of Salzburg (AT)
- University of Groningen (NL)
- Venue
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2017-10-30
- Volume
- 21
- Issue
- 3
- Pages
- 513-529
- ISSN
- 1368-4302 (ISSN-L)
- 1461-7188
- OpenAlex
- W2765257357
- Cited by
- 56
- References
- 3
- Citations by year
- 2026: 14 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 7 · 2023: 5 · 2022: 3 · 2021: 11 · 2020: 3 · 2019: 2 · 2018: 2
- FWCI
- 4.90
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- green
- research.rug.nl
- Locations
- Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (publishedVersion)
- University of Groningen research database (University of Groningen / Centre for Information Technology) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Climate Change Communication and Perception
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Social and Intergroup Psychology
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Social Psychology › Death Anxiety and Social Exclusion
- Keywords
- climate change information, ethnocentrism, pro-environmental behavior, individualism-collectivism, cross-cultural comparison, Austria, Argentina, climate change communication
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