Climate change is a real threat, so why are so many denying it?
Jamie Goldenberg, professor of psychology and Area Director of Cognitive, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology at the University of South Florida, considers the psychology.
Jamie Goldenberg is a Professor of Psychology and Area Director of Cognitive, Neuroscience, and Social Psychology at the University of South Florida. Her research explores how existential concerns related to mortality shape attitudes, particularly regarding the body and women’s bodies. Her work on health outcomes has been funded by the National Institutes of Health. Recently, she has applied her insights to understanding climate denial, especially in response to hurricanes impacting the Tampa Bay area, where she resides.
Climate Denial in Response to Existentially Threatening Hurricanes
Hurricanes Helene and Milton, less than two weeks apart, were among the most destructive in recent memory. They are also stark reminders of the extreme weather scientists have warned could result from human-driven climate change.
Still, many people deny that climate change is a worsening threat, or that it exists at all. How is this possible?
One answer lies in human psychology—specifically, how we manage fear of existential threats. With my colleagues, Emily Courtney and Josh Hart, I recently applied this perspective to climate change denial.
Terror management theory is a social psychological theory which empirically shows the lengths people go to deny death.
In experimental research, participants asked to reflect on death often use distractions, rationalizations, and other tactics to push the thoughts away.
But here’s the rub. The unconscious mind lingers on the problem even after we’ve used strategies to quiet the fear.
People cling to cultural ideologies, religious, political or even sports fandom, which can ease the terror by connecting people to an enduring web of ideas and beliefs that transcend one’s own existence.
Terror management theory suggests denial is just the start; individuals whose beliefs clash with environmental concerns may intensify their resistance, managing existential threat by reinforcing beliefs that reject climate change.
While denial is a natural response, we may be reaching a point where even deniers can’t ignore the threat.
Terror management theory suggests that overcoming this crisis requires weaving a solutions-focused narrative into the ideologies that people rely on for comfort.
By shifting the narrative from an apocalyptic battle that humanity is destined to lose to a moral and practical challenge that humanity can collectively overcome, this research offers insights into how we can confront climate change more effectively, without triggering the existential anxieties that so often lead to denial.
Read More:
[The Conversation] – Time to freak out? How the existential terror of hurricanes can fuel climate change denial
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