New research has found that we are more likely to back policies aimed at tackling climate change when we feel fearful – but feelings of dread make us less likely to support such policies.
Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology, the study is the first to investigate if incidental state emotions, referring to how people are feeling in that moment, can predict people's belief in climate change, their willingness to behave pro-environmentally and to support policies to address climate change.
Led by a team of researchers from Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) in Cambridge, England, the study involved 418 UK participants who were assessed for 10 emotions including fear, anger, sadness, guilt and dread.
The study also measured their belief in climate change and rated their support for a series of climate policies, including increasing taxes on airlines to offset carbon emissions, investing more in green jobs and businesses, and raising taxes on fossil fuels.
The results found that feeling fearful was associated with greater support for these climate policies, whereas feeling dread meant less support.
Dread is understood as an intense, overwhelming form of fear accompanied by a sense of inevitability, which the researchers suggest may leave individuals feeling powerless and less likely to believe that policies will be effective or worthwhile.
This fits with previous studies that have suggested an "inverted‑U" relationship between fear intensity and behavioural change – experiencing manageable levels of fear is mobilising, while too little fear fails to motivate and too much fear can cause us to disengage altogether.
The study also found that belief in climate change was already high amongst the UK participants. When asked to rate four statements including "human activities are causing climate change" and "climate change is a global emergency," participants scored an average of 339 out of 400, indicating broad public acceptance, although individual emotions did not predict participants' levels of belief.
However, the research did uncover gender differences, with female participants reporting both stronger climate change belief and greater support for climate policies than men.
Lead author Dr Sarah Gradidge, Lecturer in Psychology at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU) , said: "Much of the research so far has looked at emotional reactions to climate change itself, such as eco‑anxiety. Our study is the first to look at whether the everyday emotions people are feeling, whether they're thinking about climate change or not, influence people's belief in climate change and their willingness to support policies designed to address it.
"Despite being the most similar of the 10 emotions we tested, our results show a clear and important difference between fear and dread. Feeling fearful appears to motivate people and is linked with greater support for climate policies. However, dread, which can be thought of as a more intense, overwhelming form of fear, is associated with lower support for climate policies.
"Our findings suggest that any strategies aimed at building public support for climate policies may benefit from evoking manageable levels of fear, to encourage people to engage and support solutions. Going too far may leave people feeling powerless and therefore less inclined to back the policies being proposed."
