Helpful Abstraction, Barrier to Urgency, or Both? A Critical Examination of the Effects of Psychological Distance on Climate Change Perception

Abstract

In recent years, there has been an increase in research activity around the psychological distance of climate change, often investigated through the lens of Construal Level Theory (CLT). However, recent commentaries and reviews have started to point out the inconsistent evidence produced by this research field and have questioned whether CLT is indeed the most appropriate approach for investigating distance and place in the climate change context. The aim of this thesis was to critically investigate research on psychological distance and, if necessary, to produce a more suitable way forward for research into distance-related climate perceptions. To achieve this aim, we first present a systematic review of studies around psychological distance of climate change, which documents the many different approaches and methodologies employed by researchers. We argue that CLT is indeed not effective in tackling relevant research questions because it is unable to address the complexity of climate change. Instead, we propose that researchers tackle distance-related research questions in a bottom-up manner, building a descriptive evidence base before selecting or building confirmatory theory. We apply this process to the location of climate change impacts, first collating existing knowledge from adjacent fields into a new framework of place affinity. In a cross-sectional study we find that place affinity towards places impacted by climate change predicts concern, but not worry about climate change. In an experimental study, we apply the framework of place affinity to media reports of extreme weather events and find that participants reading about a flooding in a high-affinity versus a low-affinity country differ in their emotional reactions, but not their resulting risk perception, policy support or behaviour. We discuss the implications of our findings for research on psychological distance, and more broadly, for investigations of place- and distance-related perceptions around climate change.