Avoidance, rationalization, and denial: Defensive self-protection in the face of climate change negatively predicts pro-environmental behavior

Abstract

Despite urgent need for climate action, denial of climate change and resulting absence of appropriate pro-environmental behavior are widespread. Interpretive (recognition of climate change as a problem but re-interpretation of its severity) and implicatory denial of climate change (recognition of climate change as a problem but denial of psychological, political, and moral implications) can be interpreted as self-protective strategies people use to protect the self in the face of threat. However, research has not integrated individual self-protective strategies into one comprehensive measure. The present research aimed at reviewing the existing literature and constructing the Climate Self-Protection Scale (CSPS) to make climate-relevant defensive self-protection measurable. In Study 1, N = 354 Germans responded to a pool of items. Using exploratory main axis analysis, we identified five factors, corresponding to the self-protective strategies rationalization of own involvement, avoidance, denial of personal outcome severity, denial of global outcome severity, and denial of guilt. Study 2 (N = 453 Germans) used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the five-factorial structure of the CSPS. Self-protective strategies were positively related with each other (except for avoidance and denial of guilt) and fit into a framework of interpretive (denial of global and personal outcome severity) and implicatory denial (rationalization, avoidance, denial of guilt). They related positively to male gender and right-wing political orientation, and negatively to various indicators of pro-environmentalism. This provides evidence of criterion and construct validity of the CSPS. In future research, the scale could be used as a tool to examine climate-relevant self-protective strategies further.