The Future is Now: Reducing Psychological Distance to Increase Public Engagement with Climate Change

Many people perceive climate change as psychologically distant—a set of uncertain events that might occur far in the future, impacting distant places and affecting people dissimilar to themselves. In this study, we employed construal level theory to investigate whether a climate change communication...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Risk analysis Vol. 37; no. 2; pp. 331 - 341
Main Authors: Jones, Charlotte, Hine, Donald W., Marks, Anthony D. G.
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: United States Blackwell Publishing Ltd 01.02.2017
Subjects:
Climate
Climate change
Climate change communication
climate change concern
Communication
construal level theory
Consumer attitudes
Consumer education
Environmental impact
Frame analysis
Frames
Mitigation
Path analysis
Perceptions
Principal components analysis
psychological distance
Public participation
Risk analysis
Social distance
Strategy
Studies
Uncertainty
United States > US
Australia
psychological distance
climate change concern
construal level theory
Climate change communication
ISSN:0272-4332, 1539-6924
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Many people perceive climate change as psychologically distant—a set of uncertain events that might occur far in the future, impacting distant places and affecting people dissimilar to themselves. In this study, we employed construal level theory to investigate whether a climate change communication intervention could increase public engagement by reducing the psychological distance of climate change. Australian residents (N = 333) were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: one framed to increase psychological distance to climate change (distal frame), and the other framed to reduce psychological distance (proximal frame). Participants then completed measures of psychological distance of climate change impacts, climate change concern, and intentions to engage in mitigation behavior. Principal components analysis indicated that psychological distance to climate change was best conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of four components: geographic, temporal, social, and uncertainty. Path analysis revealed the effect of the treatment frame on climate change concern and intentions was fully mediated by psychological distance dimensions related to uncertainty and social distance. Our results suggest that climate communications framed to reduce psychological distance represent a promising strategy for increasing public engagement with climate change.
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ISSN:0272-4332
1539-6924
DOI:10.1111/risa.12601