the psychology of ‘denial’ and our responses to …...• goal: to understand climate change...
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The psychology of ‘denial’ and our responses to climate change CSIRO, Land & Water Flagship
ZOE LEVISTON
What is our group about?
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• Human behaviour, individually and
collectively, in relation to environmental sustainability issues.
• We are concerned with understanding psychological, cognitive and affective processing
• Identifying and overcoming the major psychological, social, and cultural barriers to behavioural change and adaptation
Understanding climate change responses
• Goal: to understand climate change ‘responses’: beliefs, opinions, attitudes, emotions, associations and so on, that are triggered by, or somehow related to, climate change.
• Method: series of national annual surveys 2010 (N=5036) 2011 (N=5030) 2012 (N=5081)
2013 (N=5219) 2014 (N=5163) 1000’s of repeat respondents
• Biggest longitudinal database in climate change, nationally and internationally
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Which statement best describes your thoughts about climate change?
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Climate change attitudes/opinions/beliefs
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Pfft, so what?
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Individual Behaviours
Opinions and pro-environmental behaviours
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Possible thoughts...
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What does the evidence tell me?
Just a knowledge deficit?
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Conflict of accounts
CSIRO Social and Behavioural Science Group| Zoe Leviston 11 |
Conflict of accounts
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Conflict of accounts
CSIRO Social and Behavioural Science Group| Zoe Leviston 13 |
Conflict of accounts
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Conflict of accounts
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Conflict of accounts
CSIRO Social and Behavioural Science Group| Zoe Leviston 16 |
Functions
What social and psychological functions might our opinions about climate change serve?
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Questions, comments?
Type your questions here anytime
Functional responses
• We strive for consistency, both in our own self-identity, but we also want to appear consistent to others (Cognitive Dissonance Theory*)
• We refer to our existing values to know how to think, feel, and behave
• Some of these values can be thought of as our ‘ideologies’
• Opinions can have a value-expressive function
* Stone, J., & Cooper, J. (2001). A Self-Standards Model of Cognitive Dissonance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 37(3), 228–243. doi:10.1006/jesp.2000.1446
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Value expression
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• Which opinion ‘team’?
• Demographics?
• What about this person’s ideology?
• It’s all political right?
What might we guess about these people?
Political voting behaviour and opinions about climate change
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• Which opinion ‘team’?
• Demographics?
• What are our political preferences based on? Ideologies
What might we guess about these people?
Possible thoughts...
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Is this consistent with my other values?
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System-Justifying Ideologies System Justification Theory*: • Individuals are motivated to defend prevailing systems (the status-quo) – including inequitable ones – and to see their outcomes as moral, just, and fair
• System justification ....
i) specifies a function: it has an intra-psychic palliative effect
ii) it accounts for the fact that disadvantaged groups often act in a way that is counter to their self-interest
iii) heightened under conditions of uncertainty, or when prevailing systems are under threat
* Jost, J. T., & Banaji, M. (1994). The role of stereotyping in system-justification and the production of false consciousness. British Journal of Social Psychology, 1, 1–27
John Jost
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• Economic System Justification (ESJ)* A tendency to view economic inequality as natural, inevitable, and legitimate, and to view economic outcomes as fair and deserved
System-justifying ideologies
*Jost, J. T., & Thompson, E. P. (2000); Feygina, I., Jost, J. T., & Goldsmith, R. E. (2010). ** Sidanius, J., & Pratto, F. (1999). ***Altemeyer, B. (1988).
• Social Dominance Orientation (SDO)** The preference for relationships to be hierarchical rather than equal, and for advocating the right of more powerful groups to dominate weaker groups.
• Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA)*** An advocacy of conventional traditions and established authorities, and value of traditional beliefs, morality, and lifestyle.
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These ideologies explained opinions, behaviour, and policy support above and beyond political voting behaviour
For our respondents as a whole....
Questions, comments?
Type your questions here anytime
Possible thoughts...
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What is everybody else going to pick?
What’s everyone else going to pick?
What do my friends and family think?
What do the people I respect think?
What sort of person am I?
What does climate change mean to me personally?
What do you think others think?
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• “Using those same four statements, what percentage of the Australian population do you think would fall into each category?”
Actual versus Estimated prevalence of opinion
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6% 4%
40%
50%
22% 21% 24%
34%
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
Deny Don't know Natural Human-induced
ActualEstimated
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Presentation title | Presenter name 35 |
• The False Consensus Effect:
The tendency among individuals and groups to overestimate how common their own opinion is (Ross, Greene, & House, 1977)
• Why does it happen?
The Availability Heuristic (“What do my friends and family think?”) Need for Social Support (especially for unpopular opinions!)
Presentation title | Presenter name 36 |
Ross, L., Greene, D., & House, P. (1977). The “False Consensus Effect ”: An egocentric bias in social perception and attribution processes. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 13, 279–301.
Possible thoughts...
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What do the people I respect think?
What’s everyone else going to pick?
What do my friends and family think?
What do the people I respect think?
What sort of person am I?
What does climate change mean to me personally?
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
then…
Me / myself
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
then…
Me / myself
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
then…
Me / myself
Personal associations with climate change
“Which 3 people first come to mind when you think about climate change?”
then…
Me / myself Family / children / pets etc
Who are our climate change ‘social referents’?
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Who are our climate change ‘social referents’?
• Authority referents seem to be more important than personal referents
• Authority referents are more often political leaders than scientists
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What do people say they base their opinions on?
CSIRO Social and Behavioural Science Group| Zoe Leviston 52 |
How can this information help?
Framing climate change communication • Technical information won’t necessarily lead to opinion and behaviour change
(people aren’t stupid!) • Find out what’s important to people! (e.g. Health)
• How do we appeal to multiple values? How do we stop triggering impeding
values?
• Make people aware of the real consensus, not the imagined one
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Thank you. For further queries, contact…
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Social & Behavioural Sciences Zoe Leviston Social Scientist, Social & Behavioural Sciences Phone: +61 3 9333 6169 Email: [email protected] Web: www.csiro.au/org/CES