An experimental investigation into climate change denial

否认气候变化的实验调查

• 批准号: 1957154
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Brighton
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2017
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2017 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-1957154
• 关键词: experimental; investigation; into; climate; change

The scientific evidence that climate change is happening and ispredominantly human-made is now more certain than the evidence for thelink between smoking and lung cancer, or Darwinian evolution. Alarmingly,the number of people denying climate change is on the increase, reflected instatements by prominent figures such as Donald Trump dismissing climatechange as a "Chinese hoax". This study sets out to explore why this might behappening, by investigating whether subconscious "defence mechanisms" areblocking peoples' rational responses to climate change. Until now, themajority of interventions aimed at making people more aware of climatechange and attempting to help them behave in more environmentallyfriendly ways have treated people as rational decision makers. Theseapproaches have ignored psychologically complex emotional responses suchas feelings of helplessness, vulnerability, guilt, defiance and denial. Theseresponses may mean that communications about climate change may havethe opposite effect to that which is intended, driving people further towardsdenial, and even motivating them to behave in ways that are directlydamaging to the environment, such as excessive consumption. This study willuse innovative methods to investigate subconscious defence mechanismsthat lead to these feelings, in a wide range of participants with differentpolitical views and different attitudes to the environment. The study willinform how public policy interventions relating to climate change might beimproved and will identify how climate change might be more effectivelycommunicated, taught and engaged with.

现在，气候变化正在发生且主要是人为的科学证据比吸烟与肺癌或达尔文进化论之间存在联系的证据更确定。令人担忧的是，否认气候变化的人数正在增加，这反映在唐纳德·特朗普(Donald Trump)等知名人物的声明中，他们将气候变化斥为“中国骗局”。这项研究旨在通过调查潜意识中的“防御机制”是否阻碍了人们对气候变化的理性反应，来探索这种情况可能发生的原因。到目前为止，大多数旨在让人们更多地意识到气候变化并试图帮助他们以更环保的方式行事的干预措施，都将人们视为理性的决策者。这些方法忽视了心理上复杂的情绪反应，如无助感、脆弱性、负罪感、反抗和否认。这些回应可能意味着，关于气候变化的沟通可能会产生与预期相反的效果，促使人们进一步否认，甚至激励他们以直接破坏环境的方式行事，例如过度消费。这项研究将使用创新的方法，在具有不同政治观点和对环境的不同态度的广泛参与者中，研究导致这些感觉的潜意识防御机制。这项研究将告知如何改进与气候变化有关的公共政策干预，并将确定如何更有效地沟通、教育和参与气候变化。