Economic vulnerability and emotions toward climate change: A case study of Spain

Abstract

Emotional reactions to climate change facilitate behavioral reactions. Individuals who experience negative emotions toward climate change are more likely to support and implement mitigation actions and policies than otherwise. Due to this link between emotions and behaviors, several studies have analyzed negative emotions toward global change. However, scant work has explored the influence of individual and contextual economic vulnerabilities. We argue that individuals who experience objective deprivation or reside in left-behind areas are cognitively and emotionally predisposed to link climate change to negative emotions. These groups endure greater economic hardship, anxiety and fear, enhancing their perception of external threats. This heightened perception enables them to more readily identify the local problems caused by climate change and link these problems to negative emotions. We test this expectation through a case study of Spain, a country particularly affected by climate change. Employing multilevel models and a novel online survey (N = 15,059) conducted in Spain, we assess whether individuals who experience greater objective economic deprivation, as well as those who live in counties with higher unemployment, fewer basic services or lower urbanization levels, display greater fear and anxiety toward climate change. The evidence partially supports our expectation. Individuals with greater economic deprivation report more climate fear and climate anxiety. In addition, individuals in high-unemployment counties also report more climate fear.