Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change

A national sample from Norway (N = 2001) was asked to report how much they worry about climate change (closed-ended question), and then to write down their reasons for (not) being worried (open-ended question). Answers to the open-ended question were content analyzed and compared across responses to...

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Main Authors: Thea Gregersen, Rouven Doran, Sina Storelv
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2023-01-01
Series:Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666622723000679
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author Thea Gregersen
Rouven Doran
Sina Storelv
author_facet Thea Gregersen
Rouven Doran
Sina Storelv
author_sort Thea Gregersen
collection DOAJ
description A national sample from Norway (N = 2001) was asked to report how much they worry about climate change (closed-ended question), and then to write down their reasons for (not) being worried (open-ended question). Answers to the open-ended question were content analyzed and compared across responses to the closed-ended question. The results showed that the most common reason for being at least somewhat worried was concern about the consequences of climate change. Respondents reporting high worry were in particular more likely to bring up consequences for humans than those reporting medium worry. Respondents who reported low worry referred to a broader range of reasons in their answers, such as believing in natural rather than human causes of climate change, expressing a sense of optimism towards potential solutions, or being discontent with political measures or public discourse on climate change. These findings add novel insights into understanding the subjective meaning associated with the degree to which people report being worried about climate change.
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spelling doaj.art-7ce70d84557144fd9284c2645f01f07c2023-12-14T05:23:59ZengElsevierCurrent Research in Ecological and Social Psychology2666-62272023-01-015100154Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate changeThea Gregersen0Rouven Doran1Sina Storelv2Norwegian Research Centre (NORCE), Bergen, Norway; Centre for Climate and Energy Transformation (CET), University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Corresponding author at: Nygårdsgaten 112, 5008 Bergen, Norway.Department of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, NorwayDepartment of Psychosocial Science, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway; Department of Government, University of Bergen, Bergen, NorwayA national sample from Norway (N = 2001) was asked to report how much they worry about climate change (closed-ended question), and then to write down their reasons for (not) being worried (open-ended question). Answers to the open-ended question were content analyzed and compared across responses to the closed-ended question. The results showed that the most common reason for being at least somewhat worried was concern about the consequences of climate change. Respondents reporting high worry were in particular more likely to bring up consequences for humans than those reporting medium worry. Respondents who reported low worry referred to a broader range of reasons in their answers, such as believing in natural rather than human causes of climate change, expressing a sense of optimism towards potential solutions, or being discontent with political measures or public discourse on climate change. These findings add novel insights into understanding the subjective meaning associated with the degree to which people report being worried about climate change.http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666622723000679Climate changeWorryClimate skepticismPsychological distanceOpen-ended
spellingShingle Thea Gregersen
Rouven Doran
Sina Storelv
Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
Current Research in Ecological and Social Psychology
Climate change
Worry
Climate skepticism
Psychological distance
Open-ended
title Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
title_full Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
title_fullStr Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
title_full_unstemmed Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
title_short Self-reported reasons for (not) being worried about climate change
title_sort self reported reasons for not being worried about climate change
topic Climate change
Worry
Climate skepticism
Psychological distance
Open-ended
url http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666622723000679
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