Examining the (non-linear) relationships between climate change anxiety, information seeking, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions

Abstract

Climate change anxiety—overwhelming feelings of distress about climate change—is increasingly recognized as an important mental health consequence of climate change. A growing body of literature has documented positive associations between climate change anxiety, information seeking/avoidance, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions. Recent speculation exists about the possibility of non-linear associations between climate anxiety and other outcomes; for example, among people with very high climate anxiety, information seeking might be lower— because it is too distressing —than among those with moderate anxiety. Similarly, very high levels of climate anxiety might result in lower behavioral intentions. The present research aimed to replicate and extend findings concerning relations between climate anxiety, information seeking/avoidance, and pro-environmental behavioral intentions by correlating these variables and testing for possible non-linearities in the relationships. Results confirmed that climate anxiety was positively correlated with information seeking, avoidance, and a measure of hypothetical behavioral intentions. Quadratic regression models yielded mixed evidence for the presence of non-linearities, with non-linearity present for some variables (e.g., information avoidance and hypothetical behavioral intentions) but not for others (e.g., seeking out data about climate change). We consider implications of our results and discuss directions for future research to bolster understanding of how climate anxiety relates to information seeking, avoidance, and behavior.