To help mitigate the negative effects of climate change, citizens’ attitudes and behaviors must be better understood. However, little is known about which factors predict engagement with climate change, and which messaging strategies are most effective. A community sample of 324 residents from three regions in British Columbia read information either about a climate change impact relevant to their local area, a more global one, or, in a control condition, no message. Participants indicated the extent of their climate change engagement, the strength of their attachment to their local area, and demographic information. Three significant unique predictors of climate change engagement emerged: place attachment, receiving the local message, and gender (female). These results provide empirical support for some previously proposed barriers to climate action and suggest guidelines for effective climate change communication.
AikenL. S.WestS. G. (1991). Multiple regression: Testing and interpreting interactions. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
2.
APA Task Force. (2009). Psychology and global climate change: Addressing a multi-faceted phenomenon and set of challenges. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
3.
BatorR. J.CialdiniR. B. (2000). The application of persuasion theory to the development of effective proenvironmental public service announcements. Journal of Social Issues, 56, 527-541.
4.
BilligM.KohnR.LevavI. (2006). Anticipatory stress in the population facing forced removal from the Gaza strip. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease, 194, 195-200.
5.
BorickC.LachapelleE.RabeB. (2011). Climate compared: Public opinion on climate change in the United States and Canada. Issues in Governance Studies, 39, 1-13.
BrownB. B.AltmanI.WernerC. M. (in press). Place attachment. In Pareja-EastawayM. (Ed.), The international encyclopedia of housing and home. Oxford, UK: Elsevier.
8.
BrownB. B.PerkinsD. D. (1992). Disruptions in place attachment. Human Behavior and Environment: Advances in Theory and Research, 12, 279-304.
9.
ChessC.JohnsonB. B. (2007). Information is not enough. In MoserS. C.DillingL. (Eds.), Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change (pp. 153-166). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
10.
ClaytonS. (2003). Environmental identity: Conceptual and operational definition. In ClaytonS.OpotowS. (Eds.), Identity and the natural environment: The psychological significance of nature (pp. 45-65). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
11.
CohenJ. (1988). Statistical power analysis for the behavioural sciences (2nd ed.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
12.
CoxC. R.ArndtJ.PyszczynskiT.GreenbergJ.AbdollahiA.SolomonS. (2008). Terror management and adults’ attachment to their parents: The safe haven remains. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 94, 696-717.
13.
Devine-WrightP.HowesY. (2010). Disruption to place attachment and the protection of restorative environments: A wind energy case study. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 271-280.
14.
DunlapR. E.McCrightA. M. (2011). Climate change denial: Sources, actors, and strategies. In Lever-TracyC. (Ed.), Routledge handbook of climate change and society (pp. 240-260). New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
15.
EdelsteinM. R. (1988). Contaminated communities: The social and psychological impacts of residential toxic exposure. Boulder, CO: Westview.
16.
FahnestockJ. (1986). Accommodating science: The rhetorical life of scientific facts. Written Communication, 3, 275-296.
17.
FeinbergM.WillerR. (2011). Apocalypse soon? Dire messages reduce belief in global warming by contradicting just world beliefs. Psychological Science, 22, 34-38.
18.
FieldA. P. (2005). Discovering statistics using SPSS (2nd Ed.). London: SAGE.
19.
FörsterJ.LibermanN. (2007). Knowledge activation. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 201-231). New York, NY: Guilford.
20.
FriedM. (1963). Grieving for a lost home. In DuhlL. J. (Ed.), The urban condition: People and policy in the metropolis (pp. 124-152). New York, NY: Simon & Schuster.
21.
Futerra. (2005). The rules of the game: The principles of climate change communication. London, England: Author.
22.
GiffordR. (2008). Psychology’s essential role in climate change. Canadian Psychology/psychologie canadienne, 49, 273-280.
23.
GiffordR. (2011). The dragons of inaction: Psychological barriers that limit climate change mitigation. American Psychologist, 66, 290-302.
24.
GiffordR.ComeauL. (2011). Message framing influences perceived climate change competence, engagement, and behavioral intentions. Global Environmental Change21, 1301-1307.
25.
GiffordR.HayR.BorosK. (1982). Individual differences in environmental attitudes. Journal of Environmental Education, 14, 19-23.
26.
GiulianiM. V. (2003). Theory of attachment and place attachment. In BonnesM.LeeT.BonaiutoM. (Eds.), Psychological theories for environmental issues (pp. 137-170). Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.
27.
HovlandC. I.JanisI. L.KelleyH. H. (1953). Communication and persuasion: Psychological studies of opinion change. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
28.
JorgensenB. S.StedmanR. C. (2001). Sense of place as an attitude: Lakeshore owners’ attitudes toward their properties. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 21, 233-248.
29.
KatesR. W.WilbanksT. J. (2003). Making the global local: Responding to climate change concerns from the bottom up. Environment, 45, 12-23.
30.
KruglanskiA. W.Sleeth-KepplerD. (2007). The principles of social judgment. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 116-137). New York, NY: Guilford.
31.
KyleG. T.GraefeA.ManningR. E.BaconJ. (2004). Effect of involvement and place attachment on recreationists’ perceptions of setting density. Journal of Leisure Research, 36, 209-231.
32.
LeiserowitzA. (2005). American risk perceptions: Is climate change dangerous?Risk Analysis, 25, 1433-1442.
33.
LeiserowitzA. (2007). Communicating the risks of global warming: American risk perceptions, affective images, and interpretive communities. In MoserS. C.DillingL. (Eds.), Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change (pp. 44-63). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
34.
LibermanN.TropeY. (1998). The role of feasibility and desirability considerations in near and distant future decisions: A test of temporal construal theory. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 75, 5-18.
35.
LibermanN.TropeY.StephanE. (2007). Psychological distance. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 353-381). New York, NY: Guilford.
36.
LorenzoniI.Nicholson-ColeS.WhitmarshL. (2007). Barriers perceived to engaging with climate change among the UK public and their policy implications. Global Environmental Change, 17, 445-459.
37.
LorenzoniI.PidgeonN. (2006). Public views on climate change: European and USA perspectives. Climatic Change, 77, 73-95.
MaioG. R.HaddockG. (2007). Attitude change. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 565-586). New York, NY: Guilford.
40.
ManzoL. C. (2005). For better or worse: Exploring multiple dimensions of place meaning. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 25, 67-86.
41.
MazumdarS.MazumdarS. (2004). Religion and place attachment: A study of sacred places. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 24, 385-397.
42.
MenardS. (1995). Applied logistic regression analysis (Sage university paper series, 07-106). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
43.
MortonT. A.RabinovichA.MarshallD.BretschneiderP. (2011). The future thatmay (or may not) come: How framing changes responses to uncertainty in climate change communications. Global Environmental Change, 21, 103-109.
44.
MoserS.DillingL. (2007). Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change. New York: Cambridge University Press.
45.
MyersR. (1990). Classical and modern regression with applications (2nd ed.). Boston, MA: Duxbury.
46.
National Endowment for Science and Technology Association. (2008). Selling sustainability report: Seven lessons from advertising and marketing to sell low-carbon living. London, England: Author.
47.
Nicholson-ColeS. A. (2004). Representing climate change futures: A critique on the use of images for visual communication. Computers, Environment and Urban Systems, 29, 255-273.
NordenstamB. J. (1994, March). When communities say NIMBY to their LULUS: Factors influencing environmental and social impact perception. Paper presented at the 14th Annual Meeting of the International Association for Impact Assessment, Quebec, Canada.
50.
NorgaardK. M. (2011). Living in denial: Climate change, emotions, and everyday life. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
51.
NortonA.LeamanJ. (2004). The day after tomorrow: Public opinion on climate change. London, England: MORI Social Research Institute.
52.
O’ConnorR. E.BordR. J.FisherA. (1999). Risk perceptions, general environmental beliefs, and willingness to address climate change. Risk Analysis, 19, 461-471.
53.
O’NeillS. J. (2008). An iconic approach to representing climate change (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). University of East Anglia, Norwich, UK.
54.
O’NeillS. J.HulmeM. (2009). An iconic approach for representing climate change. Global Environmental Change, 19, 402-410.
55.
O’NeillS. J.Nicholson-ColeS. (2009). Fear won’t do it: Promoting positive engagement with climate change through imagery and icons. Science Communication, 30, 355-379.
56.
PoortingaW.PidgeonN. (2003). Exploring the dimensionality of trust in risk regulation. Risk Analysis, 23, 961-972.
57.
ProshanskyH. M. (1978). The city and self-identity. Environment & Behavior, 10, 147-169.
58.
ProshanskyH. M.FabianA. K. (1987). The development of place identity in the child. In WeinsteinC. S.DavidT. G. (Eds.), Spaces for children (pp. 21-40). New York, NY: Plenum.
ReissH. T.JuddC. M. (2000). Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
61.
ScannellL.GiffordR. (2010a). Defining place attachment: A tripartite organizing framework. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 1-10.
62.
ScannellL.GiffordR. (2010b). The relations between natural and civic place attachment and pro-environmental behavior. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 30, 289-297.
63.
SchultzP. W.KhazianA.ZaleskiA. (2008). Using normative social influence to promote conservation among hotel guests. Social Influence, 3, 4-23.
64.
ShaverP. R.MikulincerM. (2007). Attachment theory and research: Core concepts, basic principles, conceptual bridges. In KruglanskiA. W.HigginsE. T. (Eds.), Social psychology: Handbook of basic principles (2nd ed., pp. 650-677). New York, NY: Guilford.
65.
SheppardS. R. J. (2005). Landscape visualisation and climate change: The potential for influencing perceptions and behavior. Environmental Science & Policy, 8, 637-654.
66.
SpenceA.PidgeonN. (2010). Framing and communicating climate change: The effects of distance and outcome frame manipulations. Global Environmental Change, 20, 656-667.
67.
StedmanR. (2002). Toward a social psychology of place. Environment and Behavior, 34, 561-581.
68.
StokolsD.ShumakerS. A. (1981). People in places: A transactional view of settings. In HarveyJ. (Ed.), Cognition, social behavior, and the environment (pp. 441-488). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
69.
TerryG. (2009). No climate justice without gender justice: An overview of the issues. Gender & Development, 17, 5-18.
Twigger-RossC. L.UzzellD. L. (1996). Place and identity processes. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 16, 205-220.
72.
UngarS. (2007). Public scares: Changing the issue culture. In MoserS. C.DillingL. (Eds.), Creating a climate for change: Communicating climate change and facilitating social change (pp. 82-89). New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
73.
VaskeJ. J.KobrinK. C. (2001). Place attachment and environmentally responsible behavior. Journal of Environmental Education, 32, 16-21.
74.
VlekC. (2000). Essential psychology for environmental policy making. International Journal of Psychology, 35, 153-157.
75.
WhitmarshL. (2009). What’s in a name? Commonalities and differences in public understanding of “climate change” and “global warming.”Public Understanding of Science, 18, 401-420.
76.
WilliamsD. R.AndersonB. S.McDonaldC. D.PattersonM. E. (1995, October). Measuring place attachment: More preliminary results. Paper presented at the NRPA Symposium on Leisure Research, San Antonio, TX.
77.
WilliamsD. R.RoggenbuckJ. W. (1989, October). Measuring place attachment: Some preliminary results. Paper presented at the NRPA Symposium on Leisure Research, San Antonio, TX.
78.
WoldoffR. A. (2002). The effect of local stressors on neighborhood attachment. Social Forces, 81, 87-116.
79.
WolfJ.LorenzoniI.FewR.AbrahmsonV.RaineR. (2009). Conceptual and practical barriers to adaptation: An interdisciplinary analysis of vulnerability and response to heat waves in the UK. In AdgerW. N.LorenzoniI.O’BrienK. (Eds.), Adapting to climate change: Thresholds, values, governance (pp. 181-196). Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
