The Behavioral Implications of Ambivalence

This paper examines the effect of ambivalence towards climate change issues and the relationship to individual political and non-political behaviors. Previous studies of ambivalence have focused largely on how ambivalence structures mass attitudes on many salient issues, including social welfare and cultural issues. A new battery of questions in the 2008 CCAP focusing on citizen ambivalence on climate change issues is compared to measures of individual behaviors. The results indicate that there is clear evidence for value conflict among U.S. citizens on environmental issues. Importantly, there is evidence that ambivalence positively influences engaging in conservation and recycling, controlling for a range of attitudinal and demographic factors. I suggest that one cause for this relationship is that individuals respond to value conflict, which is psychologically discomforting, by seeking personal ways to deal with macro-level issues. Researchers should consider how political attitudes in other areas translate into social or other non-political behaviors.