TY - JOUR
T1 - Emotion and the Psychological Distance of Climate Change
AU - Chu, Haoran
AU - Yang, Janet Z.
N1 - Funding Information:
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9171-3254 Chu Haoran 1 2 Yang Janet Z. 2 1 Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX, USA 2 University at Buffalo, The State University of New York, Buffalo, NY, USA Haoran Chu, Department of Public Relations, College of Media and Communication, Texas Tech University, Office 605, 3003 15th Street, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA. Email: haoran.chu@ttu.edu 12 2019 41 6 761 789 © The Author(s) 2019 2019 SAGE Publications Anchored by construal level theory and appraisal theories of emotion, this study examines whether discrete emotions vary along with perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts. We found that reduced psychological distance perception led to an increase in concrete emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and guilt. In contrast, increased psychological distance perception led to an increase in hope—an abstract emotion. Compared to anger, anxiety, and hope, fear, guilt, and shame had more limited impact on climate mitigation action and policy support. Trait empathy moderated the effect of psychological distance manipulation on distance perception and emotions. discrete emotion psychological distance climate change trait empathy typesetter ts1 Declaration of Conflicting Interests The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Funding The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1822997. This material is partially supported by the Mark Diamond Research Fund, University at Buffalo under Grant No. SP-18-27. ORCID iD Haoran Chu https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9171-3254 Supplemental Material Supplemental material for this article is available online at http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/suppl/10.1177/1075547019889637 .
Funding Information:
The author(s) disclosed receipt of the following financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article: This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 1822997. This material is partially supported by the Mark Diamond Research Fund, University at Buffalo under Grant No. SP-18-27.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2019.
PY - 2019/12/1
Y1 - 2019/12/1
N2 - Anchored by construal level theory and appraisal theories of emotion, this study examines whether discrete emotions vary along with perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts. We found that reduced psychological distance perception led to an increase in concrete emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and guilt. In contrast, increased psychological distance perception led to an increase in hope—an abstract emotion. Compared to anger, anxiety, and hope, fear, guilt, and shame had more limited impact on climate mitigation action and policy support. Trait empathy moderated the effect of psychological distance manipulation on distance perception and emotions.
AB - Anchored by construal level theory and appraisal theories of emotion, this study examines whether discrete emotions vary along with perceived psychological distance of climate change impacts. We found that reduced psychological distance perception led to an increase in concrete emotions such as anger, fear, sadness, and guilt. In contrast, increased psychological distance perception led to an increase in hope—an abstract emotion. Compared to anger, anxiety, and hope, fear, guilt, and shame had more limited impact on climate mitigation action and policy support. Trait empathy moderated the effect of psychological distance manipulation on distance perception and emotions.
KW - climate change
KW - discrete emotion
KW - psychological distance
KW - trait empathy
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85077217654&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1177/1075547019889637
DO - 10.1177/1075547019889637
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85077217654
SN - 1075-5470
VL - 41
SP - 761
EP - 789
JO - Science Communication
JF - Science Communication
IS - 6
ER -