Acceptance of group‐based dominance and climate change denial: A cross‐cultural study in Hong Kong, New Zealand, and Sweden

Abstract

Despite the importance of overcoming the persistent delay in climate action, almost no research has investigated the psychological underpinnings of climate change denial in Asian countries. Addressing this research gap, our study compares results obtained in Hong Kong with those of samples from New Zealand and Sweden regarding correlations of climate change denial with acceptance of dominance between social groups (Social Dominance Orientation), acceptance of two additional forms of group-based dominance (humans over nature, and humans over animals), and empathic concern. Results showed that only acceptance of human dominance over nature and animals predicted climate change denial in Hong Kong. In New Zealand and Sweden, however, the results resembled those found in previous research: The strongest predictor was Social Dominance Orientation, followed by acceptance of human dominance over nature. Low empathic concern predicted climate change denial only in Sweden. Results in Hong Kong differ from previous findings and indicate that climate change denial in this East Asian society is motivated more by hierarchical attitudes related to nature than social groups. We discuss possible reasons for these distinct findings and conclude that there is a need for cross-cultural research to further investigate the psychological and culture-specific motivations to dismiss climate change.

Young People’s Coping Strategies Concerning Climate Change: Relations to Perceived Communication With Parents and Friends and Proenvironmental Behavior

“…Earlier research has shown that these strategies are negatively related to climate-change worry and general negative affect (Homburg et al, 2007; Ojala, 2013). In addition, Jylhä (2016) found that denying the climate problem, a concept closely related to deemphasizing the threat, was associated with a tendency to avoid negative emotions in general. As worry/anxiety about societal issues has been found to focus people’s attention on threats and motivate them to search for solutions (Marcus, 2002), this could perhaps explain why emotion-focused coping in the form of deemphasizing the threat is negatively related to problem-focused coping.…”

Social and ecological dominance Orientations: Two sides of the same coin? Social and ecological dominance orientations predicting decreased support for climate change mitigation policies.

“…Resembling findings in the intraspecies domain among humans (conspecific: intragroup, intergroup relations), previous studies have shown an inverse relationship between SDO and prosocial attitudes towards non-human animals and the natural environment (e.g., Becker et al, 2019;Costello & Hodson, 2010;Dhont et al, 2016;Everett et al, 2019;Graça, 2020;Hoffarth et al, 2019;Hyers, 2006;Jylhä & Akrami, 2015;Milfont et al, 2013;Milfont & Sibley, 2014). For example, previous research has consistently shown that SDO is associated with lower environmentalism (e.g., Milfont et al, 2018), climate change denial (e.g., Jylhä et al, 2020), and also decreased climate change threat perceptions (Uenal et al, 2020a).…”

“…Sidanius & Pratto, 1999), an increasing number of studies indicate an inverse relationship between SDO and pro-environmental attitudes associated with climate change (e.g., bio-diversity loss, climate-change-denial; Jylhä et al, 2020;Uenal et al, 2020a). More specifically, these findings indicate that the more individuals prefer hierarchically organized societal arrangements in which some groups are on top and others on the bottom, the less they show prosocial attitudes benefitting humans as well as non-human animals, or the natural environment (e.g., racism, speciesism, anthropocentrism; Costello & Hodson, 2010;Dhont et al, 2016;Hyers, 2006;Jylhä & Akrami, 2015;Milfont et al, 2013;Stanley & Wilson, 2019).…”

Anxiety and Climate Change: A Validation of the Climate Anxiety Scale in a German-Speaking Quota Sample and an Investigation of Psychological Correlates

“…Human dominance over nature captures the belief that humans are superior to nature (Milfont et al, 2013). It is associated with striving to maintain the status quo and climate denial (Jylhä et al, 2020;Jylhä & Akrami, 2015). If people with high scores on system justification, SDO, RWA, and human dominance over nature tend to deny climate change, they may not report climate anxiety because that would in turn mean they would acknowledge the existence of climate change or its emotional consequences on the self.…”