Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Psychological Distance to Climate Change, Its Relevance for Building Concern About It, and the Potential for Education

Gubler, Moritz; Brügger, Adrian; Eyer, Marc

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-32898-6_8

Cited by 30 publications

(37 citation statements)

References 48 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…The lower levels of belief, concern, and willingness to act expressed by children in countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, and Australia could be explained by their viewing climate change as a distant and global (Chamila Roshani Perera & Rathnasiri Hewege, ) rather than local problem. This explanation is supported by the findings of a recent study investigating adolescents' perceptions of the psychological distance of climate change (Gubler, Brügger, & Eyer, ). Here, participants viewed climate change as a real and current threat, but one that affected other people and places more than themselves.…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Youth perceptions of climate change: A narrative synthesis

Lee

Gjersoe

O’Neill

et al. 2020

WIREs Climate Change

151

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Despite the scale of the predicted impact of climate change on future generations, most of the academic literature investigating perceptions of climate change relates to adults or young adults rather than children and adolescents. In this review, we synthesize literature relating to 8‐ to 19‐year‐old's perceptions and understandings of climate change, in order to identify trends and inconsistencies, potential gaps in knowledge, and directions for future research. A comprehensive search strategy identified 51 international studies, using quantitative (n = 36), qualitative (n = 9), and mixed methods (n = 6). The included studies date from 1993 to 2018. The analysis outlines levels of reported belief and concern about climate change and perceptions of its causes and consequences. It also details reported perceptions of viable solutions to climate change and notions of responsibility for implementing these. Scientifically accurate knowledge generally increased with age, although misconceptions persisted across the age range. In some studies, younger children expressed greater concern and were more willing to take action than older adolescents. Levels of belief, concern, and willingness to take action were lower in the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia than in other countries. In conclusion, we discuss potential explanations for these age and place‐related differences, examining the age‐related findings in the context of concepts and theories in developmental psychology. We outline the limitations of our review and the reviewed studies, and note potential avenues for future research and implications for educational policy and practice. This article is categorized under: Perceptions, Behavior, and Communication of Climate Change > Perceptions of Climate Change

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 70%

“…This requires understanding what is personally relevant to young people today. One example might be to determine whether young people may be brought "closer" to a spatially and socially distant climate change (Gubler et al, 2019) via social media.…”

Section: Implications For Educational Policy and Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Youth perceptions of climate change: A narrative synthesis

Lee

Gjersoe

O’Neill

et al. 2020

WIREs Climate Change

151

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Concerning the question of how distance effects the willingness to take action -for those studies that did find a relation between distance and mitigation actions -, it is unclear whether it is the spatial or social dimension of distance that was responsible for this effect. For instance, while Singh et al [5] found in their study that spatial distance was linked to concern, Gubler et al [9] could not find evidence of an effect of spatial distance, but of social distance. Stanley et al [8], on the other hand, found support for effects of both distance dimensions.…”

Section: How Could Distance Impact the Willingness To Mitigate?mentioning

confidence: 90%

“…First, let us consider the studies that do find a relation between distance to climate change effects and a lower willingness to mitigate. Several correlational studies found an inverse relationship: Greater perceived distance to climate change consequences was linked to less concern [5,8,9], lower (stated) behavioral intentions or willingness to act [4,8,10,11] and lower policy support for mitigation [4]. Usually, participants were asked to indicate their agreement to statements such as "Climate change is mostly affecting areas that are far away" [11] or "Climate change will particularly affect me, my family and my friends" [12], indicating how proximate or close they perceived these effects to be.…”

Section: Spatial and Social Distance And Willingness To Engage In Mitigation Actionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Distance to climate change consequences reduces willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions – Results from an experimental online study from Germany

Heinz

Koessler²,

Engel

2021

SSRN Journal

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Die Dokumente auf EconStor dürfen zu eigenen wissenschaftlichen Zwecken und zum Privatgebrauch gespeichert und kopiert werden.Sie dürfen die Dokumente nicht für öffentliche oder kommerzielle Zwecke vervielfältigen, öffentlich ausstellen, öffentlich zugänglich machen, vertreiben oder anderweitig nutzen.Sofern die Verfasser die Dokumente unter Open-Content-Lizenzen (insbesondere CC-Lizenzen) zur Verfügung gestellt haben sollten, gelten abweichend von diesen Nutzungsbedingungen die in der dort genannten Lizenz gewährten Nutzungsrechte. Terms of use:Documents in EconStor may be saved and copied for your personal and scholarly purposes.You are not to copy documents for public or commercial purposes, to exhibit the documents publicly, to make them publicly available on the internet, or to distribute or otherwise use the documents in public. If the documents have been made available under an OpenContent Licence (especially Creative Commons Licences), you may exercise further usage rights as specified in the indicated licence.

show abstract

“…There is some evidence that younger people are more likely to view climate change as psychologically distant than older adults ( Corner et al, 2015 ). A 2019 study found that while Swiss adolescents viewed climate change as a real and current threat (hypothetically and temporally proximal), they saw it as a greater threat to other people in other places (socially and spatially distant; Gubler et al, 2019 ). Here, a link between psychological closeness and increased concern was established.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

‘Will polar bears melt?’ A qualitative analysis of children’s questions about climate change

Lee

Barnett

2020

Public Underst Sci

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Climate change poses a grave threat to future generations, yet relatively little research examines children’s understandings of the issue. This study examines the questions children ask about climate change – rather than their answers to adults’ questions – exploring whether their questions suggest they view climate change as psychologically proximal or distant. Children aged 10–12 from 14 UK schools took part in an online event, asking scientists questions in a ‘climate zone’. The questions were analysed using thematic analysis. The themes related to the nature and reality of climate change, its causes, impacts, and solutions. Participants seemed most exercised about the future impacts of and ways of ameliorating climate change, with some questions evoking science-fiction disaster imagery. The contents of participants’ questions elucidated the ways in which they position climate change as both a proximal and distant phenomenon.

show abstract

Adolescents’ Perceptions of the Psychological Distance to Climate Change, Its Relevance for Building Concern About It, and the Potential for Education

Cited by 30 publications

References 48 publications

Youth perceptions of climate change: A narrative synthesis

Youth perceptions of climate change: A narrative synthesis

Distance to climate change consequences reduces willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions – Results from an experimental online study from Germany

‘Will polar bears melt?’ A qualitative analysis of children’s questions about climate change

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About