When climate change information causes undesirable side effects: the influence of environmental self-identity and biospheric values on threat responses

• Isabella Uhl ^[1] ; Eva Jonas ^[1] ; Johannes Klackl ^[1]
  1. [1] University of Salzburg

     University of Salzburg

     Salzburg, Austria

     
• Localización: PsyEcology: Bilingual Journal of Environmental Psychology / Revista Bilingüe de Psicología Ambiental, ISSN-e 1989-9386, ISSN 2171-1976, Vol. 7, Nº. Extra 3, 2016 (Ejemplar dedicado a: YOUNG RESEARCHERS IN ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY/JÓVENES INVESTIGADORES EN PSICOLOGÍA AMBIENTAL), págs. 307-334
• Idioma: inglés
• DOI: 10.1080/21711976.2016.1242228
• Títulos paralelos:
  • Cuando la información sobre el cambio climático tiene efectos indeseados: la influencia de la identidad ambiental y de los valores biosféricos en la respuesta ante una amenaza
• Enlaces
  • Texto completo
• Resumen
  • español

    Por lo general, las campañas sobre el medioambiente tratan de fomentar comportamientos proambientales (CPA) presentando información amenazante. La evidencia sugiere que esta estrategia puede funcionar. Sin embargo, la información amenazante también puede tener consecuencias no deseadas. Las personas suelen afrontar las amenazas de una manera simbólica que no se centra en el problema en sí. En este estudio, presentamos a los participantes información amenazante sobre cambio climático (frente a información no amenazante) y evaluamos las respuestas defensivas directas (intención de CPA, voluntad de donar) y simbólicas (evaluación grupal). Además de niveles más elevados de intención de CPA y de voluntad de donar, los individuos con fuerte identidad ambiental también muestran respuestas defensivas simbólicas ante información amenazante. Su valoración de los grupos que se desvían de la norma social colectiva fue más negativa. Los participantes con valores biosféricos bajos también se enfrentaron a las amenazas de manera simbólica (valoración negativa de grupos que apoyan un sistema liberal). Los resultados sugieren que la información ambiental amenazante puede tener efectos no deseados tales como una respuesta defensiva simbólica tanto entre los individuos con niveles tanto altos como bajos de identidad ambiental y valores biosféricos.

  • English

    Environmental campaigns often try to promote proenvironmental behaviour (PEB) by presenting threatening information. Evidence suggests that this strategy can be successful. However, threatening information may also have unintended consequences. People often cope with threat in symbolic ways that do not target the problem at hand. We presented threatening information on climate change (vs. nonthreatening information) and assessed direct (i.e., PEB intention, donation willingness) and symbolic (i.e., group evaluation) defensive responses. Besides a higher PEB intention and donation willingness, individuals with high environmental self-identity responded also in a symbolic defensive way to the threatening information. They evaluated groups that deviated from the collective social norm more negatively. People with low biospheric values also faced the threat in a symbolic way (i.e., more negative evaluation of liberal system-supporting groups). The results suggest that threatening environmental information can have side effects in the form of symbolic defense among individuals with low as well as high environmental self-identity and biospheric values.

• Referencias bibliográficas
  • Bolderdijk, J. W., Gorsira, M., Keizer, K., & Steg, L. (2013). Values determine the (in)effectiveness of informational interventions in...
  • Burke, B. L., Martens, A., & Faucher, E. H. (2010). Two decades of terror management theory: A meta-analysis of mortality salience research....
  • Corner, A., Whitmarsh, L., & Xenias, D. (2012). Uncertainty, scepticism and attitudes towards climate change: Biased assimilation and...
  • Corr, P. J., Deyoung, C. G., & Mcnaughton, N. (2013). Motivation and personality: A neuropsychological perspective. Social and Personality...
  • Dunlap, R. E., Xiao, C., & McCright, A. M. (2001). Politics and environment in America: Partisan and ideological cleavages in public support...
  • Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2011). Apocalypse soon?: Dire messages reduce belief in global warming by contradicting just-world beliefs....
  • Feinberg, M., & Willer, R. (2013). The moral roots of environmental attitudes. Psychological Science, 24, 56–62. doi:10.1177/0956797612449177
  • Feygina, I., Jost, J. T., & Goldsmith, R. E. (2010). System justification, the denial of global warming, and the possibility of “system-sanctioned...
  • Fritsche, I., Cohrs, J. C., Kessler, T., & Bauer, J. (2012). Global warming is breeding social conflict: The subtle impact of climate...
  • Fritsche, I., Jonas, E., Ablasser, C., Beyer, M., Kuban, J., Manger, A.-M., & Schultz, M. (2013). The power of we: Evidence for group-based...
  • Fritsche, I., Jonas, E., Niesta Kaysere, D., & Koranyi, N. (2010). Existential threat and compliance with pro-environmental norms. Journal...
  • Gray, J. A., & McNaughton, N. (2000). Neuropsychology of anxiety: An enquiry into the functions of septo-hippocampal theories (2nd ed.)....
  • Grubbs, F. E. (1969). Procedures for detecting outlying observations in samples. Technometrics, 11, 1–21. doi:10.1080/00401706.1969.10490657
  • Harmon-Jones, E., Amodio, D. M., & Harmon-Jones, C. (2009). Chapter 3 action-based model of dissonance. A review, integration, and expansion...
  • Hayes, A. F. (2013). Introduction to Mediation, Moderation, and Conditional Process Analysis: A Regression-Based Approach. New York, NY: Guilford...
  • Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. (2013). Summary for policymakers. In Climate change 2013: The physical science basis. Contribution...
  • Jonas, E., McGregor, I., Klackl, J., Agroskin, D., Fritsche, I., Holbrook, C., … Quirin, M. (2014). Threat and defense. From anxiety to approach....
  • Lerner, M. (1980). The belief in a just world: A fundamental delusion. New York, NY: Plenum Press.
  • Lerner, M. J., & Miller, D. T. (1978). Just world research and the attribution process: Looking back and ahead. Psychological Bulletin,...
  • McCright, A. M., & Dunlap, R. E. (2011). Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States....
  • McGregor, I., Nash, K., Mann, N., & Phills, C. E. (2010). Anxious uncertainty and reactive approach motivation (RAM). Journal of Personality...
  • McNaughton, N., & Corr, P. J. (2004). A two-dimensional neuropsychology of defense: Fear/anxiety and defensive distance. Neuroscience...
  • Morton, T. A., Rabinovich, A., Marshall, D., & Bretschneider, P. (2011). The future that may (or may not) come: How framing changes responses...
  • Pyszczynski, T., Greenberg, J., & Solomon, S. (1999). A dual-process model of defense against conscious and unconscious death-related...
  • Schahn, J., Damian, M., Schurig, U., & Fuechsle, C. (1999). Construction and evaluation of the third version of the scale system for recording...
  • Steg, L., Perlaviciute, G., van der Werff, E., & Lurvink, J. (2014). The significance of hedonic values for environmentally relevant attitudes,...
  • Van der Werff, E., Steg, L., & Keizer, K. (2013a). It is a moral issue: The relationship between environmental self-identity, obligation-based...
  • Van der Werff, E., Steg, L., & Keizer, K. (2013b). The value of environmental self-identity: The relationship between biospheric values,...
  • Van der Werff, E., Steg, L., & Keizer, K. (2014). I am what I am, by looking past the present: The influence of biospheric values and...
  • Van Lange, P. A., Otten, W., De Bruin, E. M., & Joireman, J. A. (1997). Development of prosocial, individualistic, and competitive orientations:...
  • Watson, D., Clark, L. A., & Tellegen, A. (1988). Development and validation of brief measures of positive and negative affect: The PANAS...
  • Witte, K. (1994). Fear control and danger control: A test of the extended parallel process model (EPPM). Communication Monographs, 61, 113–134....
  • Witte, K., Berkowitz, J. M., Cameron, K. A., & McKeon, J. K. (1998). Preventing the spread of genital warts: Using fear appeals to promote...
  • Xiao, C., & McCright, A. M. (2015). Gender differences in environmental concern: Revisiting the institutional trust hypothesis in the...
  • Zelezny, L. C., Chua, P.-P., & Aldrich, C. (2000). New ways of thinking about environmentalism: Elaborating on gender differences in environmentalism....