Communicating climate change:
Science, values & politics
Dr Adam Corner
School of Psychology, Cardiff University
Climate Outreach & Information Network (COIN)
1 in 100 year event…4th time in 6 years!
Science, values & politics
"It is just this Julia
Slingo woman, who
made this absurd
statement, but their
own official statement
makes it clear there is
no proven link
whatsoever. There's
been bad weather
before.”
A difficult risk to perceive
• Not here/not now (temporally and spatially distant)
• Psychologically distant – not personally threatening;
nothing to link actions and outcomes
• Emotional cues and social signals are absent (no risk
amplification)
• Personal experience trumps statistical evidence
Uncertainty
• To scientists: ‘degree of confidence’. To everyone
else: ignorance.
• Corner et al (2012) – uncertainty facilitates
‘biased assimilation’ of evidence
• Harris et al (2013) –English interpretations of
IPCC phrase always higher than Chinese
Uncertainty as scepticism
• Actual denial of climate change or human
causation relatively uncommon
• Uncertainty about perceived consensus
(Lewandowsky et al, 2013), media exaggeration
(Whitmarsh, 2011) & weather event attribution
• Patt & Weber (2104) – biggest uncertainty ‘us’
not the ‘climate’
Flooding
• Capstick et al (2013) – serious flooding across
Wales in late 2012. 74% flooded vs. 65% nonflooded think CC happening now
• Spence & Pidgeon (2011) – higher concern and
willingness to mitigate
Global cooling or climate chaos?
• Capstick & Pidgeon (2014) cold weather goes
either way based on values and ideology
• Crucial importance of a narrative and elite cues
(Brulle, 2012)
• Audience values and whether the story resonates
with them critical
Self-transcendent values predict:
• Support for climate change policies
• Support for sustainable behaviour change
• Belief in/concern about climate change
Corner, Markowitz & Pidgeon (2014)
Implications for communication
• Spillover: under what conditions does one
behavioural change lead to another?
• Evans et al (2013) – framing car sharing as
environmental vs. financially beneficial affected
rates of recycling
• The way that messages are framed is important
Partisan divides
Partisan divides
• Some conservative values threatened by climate
change (gov regulation of industry or behaviour)
• Geoengineering (a free market solution?)
reduces conservative scepticism about climate
risks (Kahan et al, 2012)
• But geo aside (!), are there ways of
communicating climate change that overcome
the partisan divide?
A new conversation with the centre-right
• Political conservatism predicts climate change
scepticism
• BUT no inherent reason why climate change and the
values of centre-right should be incompatible.
• There is a vacuum where a coherent and compelling
conservative narrative on climate change should be.
• This is bad news for everyone – left or right.
Four narratives
Protecting the ‘green & pleasant land’
(BEAUTY/NATURE/CONSERVATION)
Securing our energy future
(SECURITY/SENSE OF BELONGING)
‘New environmentalism’ (FREEDOM/CREATIVITY)
The good life (HEALTH/RESPONSIBILITY)
Sustainable centre-right values?
Initial experimental evidence
• Mocker (2012) – Conservative voters viewed 1 of
2 video clips on decarbonising transport (N =
115)
• Community wellbeing vs. economic gain
• Community wellbeing = less fatalistic, more
personal agency
Summary
• Values, ideology and social cues key to
understanding climate change engagement
• Science moves quickly into values and politics
• Developing new narratives that bridge between
different audience and values of a more
sustainable society critical