You have probably seen movies or videos about how climate change is wreaking havoc on our world, perhaps causing you to feel concerned about an uncertain future, angry about those harmed, or mad at government or business leaders for doing too little. Those emotions may motivate action—perhaps inspiring you to work with others to encourage our leaders to do more.
But what if these feelings are not enough to move people to demand change? Wouldn't you be unlikely to talk to others about climate change if you felt anxious, helpless, or bored when thinking about such conversations? Might you be more willing to talk to others if you felt hopeful about such conversations?
Past research, primarily studying hope and anxiety, has produced mixed results about whether people who experience those emotions are likely to act to address climate change. Yet studies have not distinguished feelings about climate change versus feelings about acting to address climate change. A person might feel anxious about climate change but hopeful when thinking about the prospect of working with others to encourage people to reduce their carbon emissions. Their anxiety about climate change has little direct relevance to this specific action. In contrast, their hope is directly pertinent to the possibility of taking action.
The difference between feelings about climate change and feelings about acting might help explain why 65% of US residents think their government should do more to address climate change, but only 5% of US residents are participating in citizen action campaigns to convince US leaders to act to reduce climate change. Similar contrasts are found in over 25 other countries. Thus, to understand how feelings are linked to action, instead of asking how one feels about climate change, it may be essential to ask how people feel when they think about taking steps to save the planet.
Our research did just this. We studied four emotions—anxiety, helplessness, boredom, and hope. We wanted to know whether these emotions predicted willingness to work with others to address climate change and, if so, which emotions were the most predictive of such willingness.
Surveying Aquarium and Zoo-Goers
We surveyed almost 5,000 visitors to aquariums and zoos around the US. Survey-takers reported how much they felt hopeful, anxious, helpless, and bored when thinking about their ability to work with others to address climate change. They also indicated their intentions to engage in four types of social climate actions, including trying to influence their peers and working to influence political leaders to act to address climate change.
Having Hope
Of the four emotions, feeling hopeful about the possibility of acting was the most strongly predictive of intentions to engage in climate action. Those who felt hopeful intended far more strongly to engage in such activities than those who felt less hopeful. This finding contrasts with research showing that feeling hope that distant others are acting might weaken motivation to get involved with addressing climate change. Our work suggests the possibility that feeling hopeful about one's personal actions may be more motivating than feeling hopeful that others will take action.
Bored and Disengaged
The second-strongest predictor of intentions to engage in climate action was feeling bored when considering taking action. The more bored a person felt, the less willing they were to act. Because boredom signals that something lacks meaning and is difficult to attend to, it makes sense that feeling bored about an action lessens how much one wants to do it. Perhaps finding ways to make climate action interesting would be a way to promote engagement.
Helplessness and Anxiety Not Strongly Associated with Plans to Act
Many people might assume that not feeling in control or anxious about taking action would hold people back from climate engagement. Instead, those who felt more helpless and anxious about taking action were actually slightly more willing to act than those who did not feel very helpless or anxious. Overall, however, the weak association suggested these emotions did not have much impact on people's intention to act.
We Must Ask: Emotional About What?
Our work highlights the importance of better understanding the behavioral context in which emotions about climate change are experienced. Independent of how they feel about climate change, are they hopeful about working with others, or does it make them feel bored? Redirecting efforts away from the feelings about climate change itself to addressing how people feel about their opportunities to do something may further engage people to take such action. Our work points to the importance of conveying group activities in a way that evokes feelings of hope and excitement about the possibilities that can emerge when working in camaraderie with others to address climate change.
For Further Reading
Geiger, N., Swim, J. K., Gasper, K., Fraser, J., & Flinner, K. (2021). How do I feel when I think about taking action? Hope and boredom, not anxiety and helplessness, predict intentions to take climate action. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 76, 101649. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101649
Geiger, N., Gore, A., Squire, C. V., & Attari, S. Z. (2021). Investigating similarities and differences in individual reactions to the Covid-19 pandemic and the climate crisis. Climatic Change, 161(1). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10584-021-03143-8
Kantenbacher, J., Miniard, D., Geiger, N., Yoder, L., & Attari, S. Z. (2022). Young adults face the future of the United States: Perceptions of its promise, perils, and possibilities. Futures, 102951. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.futures.2022.102951
van Zomeren, M., Pauls, I. L., & Cohen-Chen, S. (2019). Is hope good for motivating collective action in the context of climate change? Differentiating hope's emotion- and problem-focused coping functions. Global Environmental Change, 58, 101915. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gloenvcha.2019.04.003
Nathaniel Geiger is an Assistant Professor of Communication Science at Indiana University Bloomington. His research focuses on psychological and emotional barriers to and motivators of engagement with collective challenges and how (mis)perceptions of others' beliefs and behaviors on these issues influence engagement.
Janet K. Swim is a Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. She is currently studying how values, relationships with nature, emotions, and knowledge about environmental systems influence pro-environmental actions and policies.
Karen Gasper is an Associate Professor of Psychology at The Pennsylvania State University. Her research examines how people's emotions can influence their thoughts, goals, and actions.
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