Social Representation of Global Climate Change: An Exploratory Study Focusing on Emotions

Abstract

Climate change is a complex, emerging concept, and emotions seem to play a vital role in its social construction. We aimed to explore social representations of global climate change, especially from the perspective of emotions. We investigated emotions as representational components and, by applying anxiety, as psychological anchors affecting the organization and contents of representations. Free associations to the inductor “global climate change” were collected from 287 Hungarian respondents (Mage = 32.7, SD = 12.1 years). They were submitted to specificities, prototypical and similarity analyses (IRaMuTeQ software). Anxiety was measured with STAI, using the Trait subscale. Results show an integrated representation of natural and human-related aspects. Fear and anxiety were the most frequently mentioned emotions. Fear was a prominent concept, as part of the representation was organized around it. More anxious participants tended to anchor climate change as more ominous and unavoidable. Less anxious participants had a distanced view, while actions were central for participants with medium anxiety. We discuss how these results compare to previous findings and what might be the sources and implications of group differences, especially from a climate communication view.