Clarifying longitudinal relations between individuals' support for human rights and climate change beliefs

Abstract

The devastating effects of climate change on human rights has led the United Nations to recommend a human rights-based approach to climate action. However, no research has examined the relations between support for human rights and climate change beliefs, which is critical if such a rights-based approach is to receive widespread public backing. Here we combine variable- and person-centred analyses to investigate the cross-sectional and longitudinal relations between support for human rights and climate change beliefs/concern with data from the New Zealand Attitudes and Values Study (N ≈ 17,656). Cross-lagged analyses indicate that support for the broader human rights item about the right to food, clothing, housing and medicine had a bidirectional relationship with climate change beliefs/concern. A latent profile analysis then revealed four distinct subgroups of New Zealanders whose climate change beliefs/concern differed between subgroups, while all subgroups consistently supported human rights. Lastly, latent transition analysis revealed that, although two of these distinct profiles were relatively unstable across the one-year period, New Zealanders generally moved from profiles of lower to higher levels of climate beliefs/concern. Findings reveal novel implications for a rights-based climate change response.