Fear-Based Climate Appeals Can Be Counterproductive

Calls to take action against climate change are growing increasingly urgent. Drawing on recent research, advocates often point to the enormous costs of inaction, and how the perils will only mount in the years ahead.

Scaring people is a time-honored way of trying to convince people to change their minds. But new research suggests that, when it comes to climate change, that strategy might be backfiring. …

“Our results suggest that the dominant justification for carbon reduction policies may unintentionally make policy change less likely,” write Adam Seth Levine of Cornell University and Reuben Kline of Stony Brook University. Their study is published in the Journal of Experimental Political Science. CONT.

Tom Jacobs, Pacific Standard