Abstract
Experts agree that the environmental situation in relation to climate change requires that populations mobilize. In this respect, research on psychological distance shows that the fact of perceiving an event as concrete leads individuals to adapt to this environmental issue. The first aim of this research study is to identify the different types of environmental coping as regards climate change. The second objective is to study the relations between psychological distance relative to climate change and environmental coping strategies via a quasi-experimental protocol. In order to do this, 345 participants were assigned to a group where climate change was presented as more or less distant from a spatial, temporal, social or hypothetical point of view. On the one hand, the results enable the identification of two second-order factors regarding coping strategies in relation to climate change: Strategies centered on accepting climate change and those centered on minimizing its gravity. On the other hand, covariance analyses and path analyses show that, in general, a small psychological distance in relation to climate change is likely to be associated with more strategies centered on accepting climate change and fewer strategies focused on minimizing its gravity. This study leads us to ponder the pertinence of considering the psychological distance model, notably during awareness-raising campaigns.
Highlights
Individuals perceive the threat of climate change (CC) as distant in time and space (Lorenzoni & Pidgeon, 2006; Pidgeon, 2012) [1,2]
This study enabled two large sets of coping strategies in relation to CC to be identified
One of them refers to problem-centered coping and seems to be linked to acceptance of the environmental issue, and the other concerns coping strategies that are at a distance from the center of the problem, and rather seems to illustrate the minimization of the issue’s gravity
Summary
Individuals perceive the threat of climate change (CC) as distant in time and space (Lorenzoni & Pidgeon, 2006; Pidgeon, 2012) [1,2]. Given its seriousness and anthropogenic cause, it seems essential for individuals to mobilize in order to adapt to this environmental phenomenon [3]. In this regard, 79% of French people say that climate change is caused by human activities and global warming is the most acute [4]. 44% of French people believe that individual behavior is an effective solution to fight against global warming [5]. As climate change preoccupations are related to how individuals adapt to it [6], it is important to understand how the way in which the phenomenon is characterized influences adaptation strategies
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