Taking Climate Change Here and Now – Mitigating Ideological Polarization with Psychological Distance

• In Event: Psychology and Emotions in Climate Change Communication

Abstract

Construal level theory of psychological distance suggests that people are likely to pay more attention to contextual cues when appraising proximal vs. distant stimuli. We tested the theory in the context of climate change by examining if framing climate change impacts in a psychologically close way overcomes value-based orientations in motivating the American public to support climate-mitigating policies and enact climate-mitigating actions. Results of an experimental survey based on a large adult sample (N = 1,086) supported some of our propositions. Ideological polarization in climate change perception was alleviated when climate change impact was portrayed as influencing a spatially close and familiar exemplar, as compared to a spatially distant and novel exemplar. However, issue framing did not moderate the effects of cultural cognition worldview and environmental value.
Keywords: climate change, construal level theory, psychological distance, experiment

Authors

• Haoran Chu, U of Buffalo

• Janet Zheng Yang, State U of New York - Buffalo