The impact of anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty on climate change distress, policy support, and pro-environmental behaviour

IF 3.8 3区心理学 Q1 PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL

British Journal of Clinical Psychology Pub Date : 2023-10-03 DOI:10.1111/bjc.12441

Danielle Goldwert, Amelia S. Dev, Hannah C. Broos, Kenneth Broad, Kiara R. Timpano

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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Objectives

As the threat of climate change continues to grow, bolstering individual-level support for climate change initiatives is crucial. More research is needed to better understand how individual difference factors, such as climate change anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IU), may shape how people perceive climate change and respond to climate change messaging. To date, the majority of published studies have not taken these individual difference factors into consideration, and IU has been particularly neglected in the climate change literature. This study examined the independent effects of climate change anxiety and IU on three climate change-related outcomes: climate-related distress, support for climate change policies, and behavioural engagement.

Methods

Participants were Florida residents (N = 441) who completed an online survey, including measures of climate change anxiety and IU. Participants then watched a video describing climate change consequences and completed three outcome measures: post-video distress, climate change policy support, and behavioural engagement.

Results

Controlling for demographic covariates, both climate change anxiety (β = .43, p < .001) and IU (β = .27, p < .001) were associated with greater post-video distress, but only IU independently predicted greater policy support (β = .10, p = .034) and behavioural engagement (β = .12, p = .017).

Conclusions

Our findings suggest that IU may be an important factor in promoting pro-environmental behaviour and policy support, but climate change anxiety may increase emotional distress without boosting meaningful behaviours or support. Our findings highlight the potential influence of cognitive factors on climate change engagement and suggest that invoking uncertainty rather than anxiety may be more effective in catalysing effective environmental engagement.

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对不确定性的焦虑和不容忍对气候变化困境、政策支持和环保行为的影响。

目标：随着气候变化的威胁持续增加，加强个人层面对气候变化举措的支持至关重要。需要更多的研究来更好地了解个体差异因素，如气候变化焦虑和对不确定性的不容忍（IU），如何影响人们对气候变化的感知和对气候变化信息的反应。到目前为止，大多数已发表的研究都没有考虑到这些个体差异因素，IU在气候变化文献中尤其被忽视。这项研究考察了气候变化焦虑和IU对三种与气候变化相关的结果的独立影响：与气候相关的痛苦、对气候变化政策的支持和行为参与。方法：参与者为佛罗里达州居民（N = 441），他们完成了一项在线调查，包括对气候变化焦虑和IU的测量。参与者随后观看了一段描述气候变化后果的视频，并完成了三项结果测量：视频后的痛苦、气候变化政策支持和行为参与。结果：控制人口统计学协变量，气候变化焦虑（β = .43，p 结论：我们的研究结果表明，IU可能是促进环保行为和政策支持的重要因素，但气候变化焦虑可能会增加情绪困扰，而不会促进有意义的行为或支持。我们的研究结果强调了认知因素对气候变化参与的潜在影响，并表明援引不确定性而不是焦虑可能更有效地促进有效的环境参与。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

British Journal of Clinical Psychology PSYCHOLOGY, CLINICAL-

CiteScore

5.80

自引率

3.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： The British Journal of Clinical Psychology publishes original research, both empirical and theoretical, on all aspects of clinical psychology: - clinical and abnormal psychology featuring descriptive or experimental studies - aetiology, assessment and treatment of the whole range of psychological disorders irrespective of age group and setting - biological influences on individual behaviour - studies of psychological interventions and treatment on individuals, dyads, families and groups