Anger, hope, loss: How emotions can spark pro-climate action

Today, almost every region of the world is affected by human-induced climate change.

Researchers from the M. Nencki Institute of Experimental Biology at the Polish Academy of Sciences, in collaboration with the Department of Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and SWPS University, have investigated the impact of emotions on pro-climate actions. The results of the research are promising.

Some of the main culprits for accelerated climate change are large corporations and political decision-makers. However, by changing global behaviour in a social context, political choices can be significantly influenced.

Sadness over climate change has its own word: Solastalgia

People have been feeling climate change “here and now” for some time, according to Dominika Zaremba, a psychologist, psychotraumatologist and PhD student at the Nencki Institute in Warsaw. This is why climate anxiety is not as straightforward as you might

This worry causes a range of emotions close to a sense of loss. This kind of sadness and stress, caused by climate change, is called ‘solastalgia‘. It’s a peculiar feeling of mourning, which Dominika Zaremba compares to losing someone close to you.

“Seeing trees wither away makes people feel a sense of mourning like after a loss,” says the scientist.

She recalls a study that looked at how individuals felt about climate change. The respondents came from all walks of life, including different ages and social groups.

The most profound experience of grief affected participants with a broader view of the climate, but also older people who remember a very different landscape of their youth.

“I was reminded of the words of our oldest participant, who was over 80 years old, who simply remembered what winters were like in her childhood,” says Zaremba.

“She said that when she realises that she now has great-grandchildren who won’t experience snowball battles or sledging, it brings tears to her eyes. So older people who have seen this degeneration of the environment, this progressive destruction, they probably experience climate change more strongly.”

Strong feelings lead to the need for action, but to incorporate climate change action into daily habits, short-term emotions are not enough.

“Short-term emotions are like sparks, but they won’t influence pro-climate decisions”

The results of the study, conducted by researchers from the Institute of Experimental Biology in collaboration with the Department of Psychology at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology and the University of SWPS, showed the wide range of emotions people feel about climate change.

During the analyses, a tool called the Climate Emotion Inventory was developed. It allowed eight main emotions to be demonstrated.

The study found that the dominant emotions in the context of climate change were anger, helplessness, enthusiasm, loneliness, guilt, sadness, contempt and fear.

The strength of emotions has also been shown to have a different impact on pro-climate attitudes.

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Subsequent research, involving 200 people from across Poland and Norway, aimed to test the impact of the emotions evoked by individual stories on the real-life actions taken after reading or listening to them.

Participants were exposed to more or less emotional stories, and later had the opportunity to donate a certain amount of money to a selected climate change organisation.

The study found that participants’ willingness to donate was similar whether they were exposed to emotionally evocative stories or neutral stories.

In further stages of the study, the researchers improved the methodology by introducing more precise tasks for the participants and using MRI brain scans.

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The study confirmed the lack of correlation between short-term emotions and pro-climate behaviour (in this case, participants were given a choice of two action options – reducing CO2 emissions or accepting a financial reward).

“Short-term emotions are like sparks,” says Dominika Zaremba. “A small spark is a small effect. Long-term, on the other hand, stronger emotions that accumulate over a longer period of time have an effect, for example anger, at corporations, at institutions, at politicians, at celebrities, which is already motivated by hearing a lot of stories, getting to a lot of sources.”

“When we act together, whole systems can change”

According to the researchers, however, the lack of correlation between short-term emotions and pro-climate decisions does not invalidate the entire line of research.

Studies previously done with the Climate Emotion Inventory helped measure participants’ long-term emotional attitudes towards climate change.

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With these, MRI scanning was also used. Participants rated the intensity of their climate-related emotions before entering the scanner and hearing personal stories.

In this case, the results were promising – long-term sadness, anger and guilt were observed to result in more pro-climate decisions.

“The two emotions that came out to us as being strong motivators were anger and compassion – there’s that sadness there in that compassion, but it has to be that desire to relieve suffering.”

“We can use the knowledge of emotions to shape pro-climate behaviour,” Zaremba continues. “Anger is inflammatory and it is good for arousing initial interest. However, anger on its own will be an impotent anger. But anger that we can already redirect somewhere translates into concrete action.”

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Positive emotions, such as hope, and group action are also needed to sustain anger.

“Community works well against burnout. Alienation weakens the will to act. When we act together, whole systems can change,” Zaremba says.