https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/climate-change-psychology-1.4920872
[links and images in online article]
The psychology of climate change: Why people deny the evidence
'This is not a time to be passive and allow this calamity to happen to
us,' says one psychologist
Nicole Mortillaro · CBC News · Posted: Dec 02, 2018 4:00 AM ET
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Photo caption: The central Pacific island nation of Kiribati, which
consists of 33 atolls and islands, is at risk of becoming uninhabitable
in 30-60 years due to surrounding sea levels rising. Despite all the
evidence that climate change exists and is caused by human activity,
some people are still reluctant to acknowledge it. (David Gray/Reuters)
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This week, representatives from more than 150 countries are meeting in
Katowice, Poland, for COP 24, or the 24th Conference of the Parties to
the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate.
Their goal: to find ways to reduce carbon emissions in order to combat
the effects of climate change.
Last week, the United States released its National Climate Assessment,
which was largely buried in the news as a result of its release over the
U.S. Thanksgiving holiday. Its conclusions were in line with those of
the UN and other climate organizations: global climate is changing, and
"the global warming of the past 50 years is primarily due to human
activities, predominantly the burning of fossil fuels."
That same day, U.S. President Donald Trump said he doesn't believe the
report.
On Thursday, the UN World Meteorological Organization said global
temperatures are headed for a rise of 3 to 5 C this century, far above
the target of 1.5 to 2 C.
The message seems to be clear: Earth's climate is rapidly changing as a
result of human activity. So how is it that some people are still
reluctant to acknowledge it?
According to some psychologists, there are a number of reasons,
including the prevalence of deceptive or erroneous information about the
topic.
"But you're also getting a lot of misinformation, what we call
agnotology — misleading information and false information — from vested
interests," said Michael Ranney, professor of education at the
University of California, Berkeley's Department of Psychology. "And the
internet, for decades, has been offering information that is misleading."
And some recent studies suggest that false news spreads faster than true
or objective news.
One of the reasons people might be sharing that information — which they
may not recognize as false — is that it represents their worldview — a
phenomenon called confirmation bias.
'Information deficit'
Another important thing to consider, Ranney says, is decreasing
"information deficit," or lack of knowledge. To this end, he created the
website How Global Warming Works, which provides short videos explaining
the mechanisms of global warming. And that, he believes, makes a
difference with some people.
"Even in places like Berkeley, we almost tripled their understanding of
the mechanisms of global warming, and that increased their acceptance of
global warming," Ranney says of one study conducted at his university.
"One high school, the students knew so little about global warming, we
increased their knowledge 17 times … and they also increased their
acceptance."
But Canadian Matto Mildenberger, an assistant professor of political
science at the University of California, Santa Barbara, doesn't place
that much faith in the "information deficit" theory.
"Information deficit may matter at the margins," says Mildenberger, who
also who contributes to Yale University's Program on Climate Change
Communication.
"It's not that information doesn't matter, but it strikes me that the
way in which we need to solve the problem of climate communication is
primarily by having trusted individuals — and by that, I don't mean
scientists. I mean people in local communities — be climate advocates
and climate messengers to their communities."
What motivates denial?
There's something else that may be at play at the subconscious level
that allows us to disregard the evidence that's in front of us.
"A big part isn't the experience; it's the motivation," said Paul
Thagard, professor emeritus at the University of Waterloo's Department
of Philosophy, who specializes in cognitive science.
"Psychologists talk a lot about 'motivated inference' … when people have
strong motivations, they're very selective in the sort of evidence they
look for."
Even though there is consensus that climate change is occurring and that
humans are exacerbating it, there are still people — including
politicians — who refuse to acknowledge the evidence.
"The motivations vary depending on who you are," says Thagard. "If
you're a conservative politician, you just don't want to believe [in
climate change], because if there really is climate change caused by
human activity, then there has to be government actions to stop the
disastrous results that are probably going to come down the line in 20
or 30 years."
There are other fears: people whose livelihood is dependent on, say, the
oil industry, might fear acknowledging climate change will threaten
their jobs. Others might resent government taking money out of their
pockets in the form of public spending on carbon mitigation efforts.
"But that gets in the way of appreciating the overwhelming scientific
evidence that really bad times are coming," Thagard said.
Changing communication
Mildenberger say that, while there is a lot of climate change
information out there, communicating it in an effective way is key.
And it's not about painting a doom-and-gloom scenario.
"If you overwhelm people, there's some evidence that they can end up in
some fatalistic mindset and feel unempowered," Mildenberger said.
"The trick is to communicate the seriousness of the climate threat …
with a sense of empowering people to take action."
A sense of empowerment is something that Ranney cites as well when it
comes to acceptance of climate change.
"It's going to become more and more obvious to everyone that global
warming is occurring and that it's scary and yet something that we can
fix, and should," he said.
"This is not a time to be passive and allow this calamity to happen to
us. We can fix this, and we can fix this now."