How the public engages with global warming: A social representations approach

Abstract

The present study utilises social representations theory to explore common sense conceptualisations of global warming risk using an in-depth, qualitative methodology. Fifty-six members of a British, London-based 2008 public were initially asked to draw or write four spontaneous "first thoughts or feelings" about global warming. These were then explored via an open-ended, exploratory interview. The analysis revealed that first thoughts, either drawn or written, often mirrored the images used by the British press to depict global warming visually. Thus in terms of media framings, it was their visual rather than their textual content that was spontaneously available for their audiences. Furthermore, an in-depth exploration of interview data revealed that global warming was structured around three themata: self/other, natural/unnatural and certainty/uncertainty, reflecting the complex and often contradictory nature of common sense thinking in relation to risk issues.

Human Responses to Climate Change: Social Representation, Identity and Socio-psychological Action

“…Furthermore, it is necessary to "properly acknowledge the news media as the primary intermediary between science, politics, and the citizens, as well as their agenda-setting role for citizens' meaning making on climate change" (Olausson, 2011). Yet, both the media and individuals function as co-constructors of social representations (Breakwell, 2001), and there is an important and dynamic interplay between media representation, identity and personal experience (Smith & Joffe, 2013).…”

“…Anchoring reflects the categorisation of unfamiliar objects through their comparison with an existing stock of familiar and culturally accessible objects. Recent empirical studies have demonstrated a widespread tendency for individuals to anchor climate change to ozone depletion, which constitutes the basis of their understanding of climate change, especially in the UK context (Lorenzoni et al, 2006;Smith & Joffe, 2013. This highlights the importance of a culturally sensitive, relativist epistemological approach to representations of climate change.…”

“…Existing SRT research into climate change communication suggests the existence of some key social representations in Western industrialised societies (Höijer, 2010;Olausson, 2010Olausson, , 2011Smith & Joffe, 2013. The notion that anthropogenic climate change is largely a human-induced environmental problem constitutes a hegemonic representation, which has been encouraged since at least 1988 .…”

“…Responses to identity threat, for example, can occur, and should be studied, at all levels (Jaspal & Breakwell, 2014). At the social level, individuals will engage in interpersonal and intergroup strategies for protecting identity in response to social representations of climate change (Smith & Joffe, 2013). This is because climate change exists as a social phenomenon, as well as a psychological one.…”

“…Social representations of climate change facilitate sense-making of a potentially obscure and esoteric environmental phenomenon originating from the scientific domain. An SRT approach to climate change enables researchers to gain insights into the ways in which climate change is represented in channels of societal information and the ways in which it is deployed cognitively and rhetorically by social actors in communication Olausson, 2011;Smith & Joffe, 2013).…”