Curtin University Homepage
  • Library
  • Help
    • Admin

    espace - Curtin’s institutional repository

    JavaScript is disabled for your browser. Some features of this site may not work without it.
    View Item 
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item
    • espace Home
    • espace
    • Curtin Research Publications
    • View Item

    Imagining climate change: The role of implicit associations and affective psychological distancing in climate change responses

    Access Status
    Fulltext not available
    Authors
    Leviston, Z.
    Price, J.
    Bishop, Brian John
    Date
    2014
    Type
    Journal Article
    
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Citation
    Leviston, Z. and Price, J. and Bishop, B.J. 2014. Imagining climate change: The role of implicit associations and affective psychological distancing in climate change responses. European Journal of Social Psychology. 44 (5): pp. 441-454.
    Source Title
    European Journal of Social Psychology
    DOI
    10.1002/ejsp.2050
    ISSN
    0046-2772
    School
    School of Psychology and Speech Pathology
    URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/41695
    Collection
    • Curtin Research Publications
    Abstract

    Negative climate change imagery is often criticised on the grounds that it provokes and promotes disempowering responses and psychological distancing. We investigated people's associations with climate change, and their affective content on multiple dimensions, through two studies. In Study 1, we administered an image-elicitation task to 2502 people across Australia to examine the mental images most commonly associated with climate change. We used these common responses from the image-elicitation task to compile 82 actual images. In Study 2, these images were presented to participants at a series of four workshops (N=52). Participants selected the images they most closely associated with climate change, rated them for affective content on an emotion circumplex, and later discussed evocative images in small groups. The findings suggest (i) a significant proportion of people struggle to form concrete associations; (ii) common associations are typically psychologically distant and iconographic, but some national-level impacts are also salient; and (iii) associations with climate change impacts differ in their affective content: Specifically, associations related to drought and denuded landscapes provoke lower arousal, whereas associations related to disasters and extremes provoke higher arousal. The importance of considering motivated reasoning and multi-dimensional affect in the psychological distancing of climate change is discussed. © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

    Related items

    Showing items related by title, author, creator and subject.

    • The social and psychological functions of responses to climate change
      Leviston, Zoe (2013)
      Climate change is the most pressing environmental threat faced by humans, yet responses – individually, collectively, and politically – have frequently lacked urgency. Why a threat of such magnitude should meet with ...
    • Moral choice in an agency framework and related motivational typologies as impacted by personal and contextual factors for financial institutions in China.
      Woodbine, Gordon F. (2002)
      In this study an empirical investigation is conducted of the factors affecting moral choice, a necessary antecedent to moral behaviour (or action). The theoretical framework has drawn upon Rest's (1983, 1986) model of ...
    • Determining climate change impacts on viticulture in Western Australia
      Barnuud, Nyamdorj Namjildorj (2012)
      Global climate model simulations indicate 1.3°C to 1.8°C increase in the Earth’s average temperature by middle of this century above the 1980 to 1999 average. The magnitude and rate of change of this projected warming is ...
    Advanced search

    Browse

    Communities & CollectionsIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument TypeThis CollectionIssue DateAuthorTitleSubjectDocument Type

    My Account

    Admin

    Statistics

    Most Popular ItemsStatistics by CountryMost Popular Authors

    Follow Curtin

    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 
    • 

    CRICOS Provider Code: 00301JABN: 99 143 842 569TEQSA: PRV12158

    Copyright | Disclaimer | Privacy statement | Accessibility

    Curtin would like to pay respect to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of our community by acknowledging the traditional owners of the land on which the Perth campus is located, the Whadjuk people of the Nyungar Nation; and on our Kalgoorlie campus, the Wongutha people of the North-Eastern Goldfields.