Abstract
Scientific warnings about climate change continue as climate disasters strike all around the world. There is increasing public support for climate mitigation policies, and major mass protests shed light on the issue. How does climate change impact increase climate activism? I build on a conventional understanding of activism by adding the insight of construal level theory. When climate change is experienced more directly, people are more likely to act because they care more and can link concern to specific actions. Among a sample of Californians (MTurk; n = 604) as climate was perceived as more proximate, respondents were more likely to take action. A survey-experiment conducted using a US sample (MTurk; n = 609) demonstrated that as issues become more psychologically proximate, respondents were more likely to take political action. These results suggest that organizers can activate proximity to mobilize supporters.
Highlights
The 2018 UNFCC report on climate change made a clear scientific case that rapid de-carbonization of the global economy must take place by 2030 to prevent worst case scenarios
Issue public hypothesis A: When climate change is more psychologically proximate, an individual is more likely to be in the climate change issue public
The results show that some dimensions of psychological proximity motivated issue public membership more than others
Summary
The 2018 UNFCC report on climate change made a clear scientific case that rapid de-carbonization of the global economy must take place by 2030 to prevent worst case scenarios. The scientific reports and extreme weather events have led to a rising belief among the US public that climate change is already happening and there is an increase in the level of support for federal climate policy (Leiserowitz et al, 2019). Research has shown that experience with climate change-driven weather events can influence public opinion, policy support, and behavior (Howe et al, 2019). A potential explanation is the way an individual’s psychology changes with their direct experience with climate change and how that can cause behavioral changes. This can be understood using construal level theory (CLT; Trope and Lieberman, 2003). The psychological proximity and activism theory developed in this paper predicts that when an issue is directly experienced, it leads to concrete thinking about the issue and higher levels of activism
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