Emotional Response to Climate Change Influences Whether We Seek or Avoid Further Information

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[url]http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/05/130515151442.htm[/url]

[QUOTE][B]Sixty-two percent of Americans now say they believe that global warming is happening, but 46 percent say they are "very sure" or "extremely sure" that it is not. Only 49 percent know why it is occurring, and about as many say they're not worried about it, according to the April report of the Yale Project on Climate Change Communication.[/B]

Because information about climate change is ubiquitous in the media, researchers at the University at Buffalo and the University of Texas, Austin, looked at why many Americans know so little about its causes and why many are not interested in finding out more.

The study, "What, Me Worry? The Role of Affect in Information Seeking and Avoidance" was conducted by Z. Janet Yang, PhD, assistant professor of communication at UB, and Lee Ann Kahlor, PhD, associate professor of public relations and advertising at UT Austin. It was published in the April 2013 issue of the journal Science Communication.

Yang says, "Our key variables of interest were 'information seeking' and 'information avoidance.'

"We found that emotions have different impacts on both behaviors and that those with whom we socialize also are an important influence on our communication behaviors." In particular, according to Yang, the study found:

• Those who had negative feelings toward climate change -- feelings marked by states of fear, depression, anxiety, etc., -- actively sought more information about climate change. They also saw climate change as having serious risks, and considered their current knowledge about it insufficient.

• Those driven by a positive affect toward climate change -- an emotional state marked by hopefulness, excitement, happiness, etc. -- actively avoided exposure to additional information on the issue. They also said climate change presented little risk to nature and humans, and they viewed their knowledge about climate change as sufficient.

• Our social environment has the potential to strongly influence whether we seek or avoid climate change information. This, the researchers say, may be because we are most often around people who agree with us about important issues, reinforce our perception of risk and support or discourage further action. The study involved an online survey of 736 undergraduates from two large U.S. universities (61.3 percent female, 62.5 percent white, median family income, $90,000).

The research survey was developed and executed using Qualtrics software and was designed to ascertain:

• The subjects' general affect in relation to climate change -- positive (excited, hopeful, happy) or negative (concerned, worried, anxious)

• How much information about climate change they thought they had and how much more they thought they needed

• How severe they found the threat of climate change to be to themselves and to nature, and its impact around the world

• How valuable they thought seeking information on the subject would be to them

• How much they valued others' opinions toward seeking information about climate change

• The confidence each had in his or her ability to find information about climate change[/QUOTE]