Neuroscience
The skies are crowded with planes, our sclerotic roads clogged with millions of cars – when will we wake up to the urgency of climate change?
Spreading the word about the effect climate change will have on human health. That could be the key.
A group of Swedish psychologists asked 621 participants aged from 18 to 75 whether 44 statements about climate change were true or false. These were arranged into several domains: facts about the state of the climate, the causes of climate change, and the consequences for the weather, sea, glaciers and human health.
For example, a true statement about human health consequences stated: “It is probable that mortality by lung oedema and heart problems during heat waves in Sweden will increase in the next 50 years.”
It was specifically the participants' knowledge about the consequences for human health that most strongly predicted how worried they were about climate change, and how likely they thought it was that serious negative consequences would affect Sweden and other countries in the future. Knowledge of the causes of climate change had a weak association with the participants' perception of risk, but not their concern about that risk.
“A practical implication is that in order to change people's behaviour, more research and focused educational programmes about health consequences should be beneficial,” Eva-Lotta Sundblad and colleagues wrote.
To the researchers' surprise, although women were more worried than men, most demographic factors did not predict participants' worry or sense of risk surrounding climate change. For example, parents were no more concerned than non-parents.
_________________________________
Sundblad, E-L., Biel, A. & Garling, T. (2007). Cognitive and affective risk judgements related to climate change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 97-106.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Climate Change Sceptic Films More Influential Than Advocacy Films, Claims Study
Eminent scientists have condemned films that are sceptical about climate change. After airing of the Great Global Warming Swindle in 2007, for example, Sir Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society at the time, said "those who promote fringe scientific...
- Apocalyptic Climate Change Warnings Can Be Counter-productive
Many people believe implicitly that the world is fair, that bad things by and large don't happen to good people. When presented with evidence to the contrary, they ignore or downplay it. According to Matthew Feinberg and Robb Willer, this is exactly...
- Public Health Leaflets Ignore Findings From Health Psychology
Public health leaflets are failing to incorporate the lessons learned by health psychology research. That’s according to Charles Abraham and colleagues, who looked at the specific case of public health leaflets designed to encourage people to drink...
- Getting People On The Buses
Financial incentives aren’t the only way to encourage people to be more environmentally friendly. According to Ellen Matthies and colleagues at the Ruhr-Universitat in Germany, many people do care about the environment, despite their polluting habits,...
- Science For Hip Teens
Moving right along with the TV analogies, this LiveScience.com article (below) reminded me of the Simpsons episode where a new character, Poochie the dog, is introduced into The Itchy and Scratchy Show in a misguided effort to appeal to kids and to boost...
Neuroscience
Climate change will damage your health!
The skies are crowded with planes, our sclerotic roads clogged with millions of cars – when will we wake up to the urgency of climate change?Spreading the word about the effect climate change will have on human health. That could be the key.
A group of Swedish psychologists asked 621 participants aged from 18 to 75 whether 44 statements about climate change were true or false. These were arranged into several domains: facts about the state of the climate, the causes of climate change, and the consequences for the weather, sea, glaciers and human health.
For example, a true statement about human health consequences stated: “It is probable that mortality by lung oedema and heart problems during heat waves in Sweden will increase in the next 50 years.”
It was specifically the participants' knowledge about the consequences for human health that most strongly predicted how worried they were about climate change, and how likely they thought it was that serious negative consequences would affect Sweden and other countries in the future. Knowledge of the causes of climate change had a weak association with the participants' perception of risk, but not their concern about that risk.
“A practical implication is that in order to change people's behaviour, more research and focused educational programmes about health consequences should be beneficial,” Eva-Lotta Sundblad and colleagues wrote.
To the researchers' surprise, although women were more worried than men, most demographic factors did not predict participants' worry or sense of risk surrounding climate change. For example, parents were no more concerned than non-parents.
_________________________________
Sundblad, E-L., Biel, A. & Garling, T. (2007). Cognitive and affective risk judgements related to climate change. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 97-106.
Post written by Christian Jarrett (@psych_writer) for the BPS Research Digest.
- Climate Change Sceptic Films More Influential Than Advocacy Films, Claims Study
Eminent scientists have condemned films that are sceptical about climate change. After airing of the Great Global Warming Swindle in 2007, for example, Sir Martin Rees, President of the Royal Society at the time, said "those who promote fringe scientific...
- Apocalyptic Climate Change Warnings Can Be Counter-productive
Many people believe implicitly that the world is fair, that bad things by and large don't happen to good people. When presented with evidence to the contrary, they ignore or downplay it. According to Matthew Feinberg and Robb Willer, this is exactly...
- Public Health Leaflets Ignore Findings From Health Psychology
Public health leaflets are failing to incorporate the lessons learned by health psychology research. That’s according to Charles Abraham and colleagues, who looked at the specific case of public health leaflets designed to encourage people to drink...
- Getting People On The Buses
Financial incentives aren’t the only way to encourage people to be more environmentally friendly. According to Ellen Matthies and colleagues at the Ruhr-Universitat in Germany, many people do care about the environment, despite their polluting habits,...
- Science For Hip Teens
Moving right along with the TV analogies, this LiveScience.com article (below) reminded me of the Simpsons episode where a new character, Poochie the dog, is introduced into The Itchy and Scratchy Show in a misguided effort to appeal to kids and to boost...