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

Abstract

Jaspal, Rusi and Nerlich, Brigitte and Cinirella, Marco (2014) A note on versions:The version presented here may differ from the published version or from the version of record. If you wish to cite this item you are advised to consult the publisher's version. Please see the repository url above for details on accessing the published version and note that access may require a subscription. AbstractClimate change is one of the most important global challenges in the twenty-first century, given that a changing climate is likely to have negative and potentially irreversible consequences for the environment and human beings. Drawing upon Social Representations Theory and Identity Process Theory from social psychology, we argue that research should focus upon, and successfully integrate, three levels of analysis, namely (1) how climate change knowledge is constructed and circulates (social representation); (2) the role of identity in relation to these representations (identity); and (3) how people might respond to them (action). It is suggested that identity processes may determine how people process social representations of climate change, and that they mediate the link between representations and environmental behaviour. Understanding human responses to climate change necessitates an integrative social sciences perspective, in terms of disciplinary, theoretical and methodological approaches.

Threat and Anxiety in the Climate Debate—An Agent-Based Model to Investigate Climate Scepticism and Pro-Environmental Behaviour

“…As it has been pointed out in several different studies [9,19,20], an identity process (values are general and abstract principles that one strives for in life, while self-identity reflects how one sees oneself; we will limit further discussion to the latter terminology; see [21] for a conceptual differentiation between environmental preferences, intentions and behaviour) may determine how people handle the threat of climate change. Following this line of thought-that factors such as personal values and orientations have a significant role for the choice of a response when feeling threatened-the common approach to create motivation for a green transition by focusing on 'how to formulate the message best' might be misleading.…”

The complex relationship between personal sense of connection to animals and self‐reported proenvironmental behaviors by zoo visitors

“…Yet, over the last 2 decades, this knowledge‐deficit model of behavior change has been debunked by numerous research studies that show the relationship between knowledge and behavior is weak or nonexistent (e.g., Hungerford & Volk ; Schultz ; Jaspal et al. ; Carmi et al. ).…”

Public Support for Biodiversity After a Zoo Visit: Environmental Concern, Conservation Knowledge, and Self‐Efficacy

“…Formal educational settings have the advantage of a captive audience for their message, but often lack the kind of emotionally evocative component that can be found in informal settings. Research suggests that simply providing information is not likely to have a significant effect on behaviour (e.g., Jaspal et al 2014); effective education needs to engage and involve the learner (Rickinson 2001;Wals 2012).…”