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Communication Dans Un Congrès Année : 2024

Reducing the psychological distance of climate change to promote mitigation: What if it depends on mitigation practices?

Résumé

In France, recently established regional scientific groups on climate change are reshaping the discourse about climate issues towards a more localized and concrete communication (see GREC-SUD, n.d.). This strategy, known as reducing the “psychological distance of climate change” (PDCC), is often considered as a significant driver for mitigation: but is it really the case? Psychological studies have shown that decreased PDCC fosters mitigation practices but only under certain conditions (Keller et al., 2022; Langlais et al., 2022). While we now have some understanding of who and in what contexts this strategy is effective, we remain ignorant of the practices for which it is effective or not. This, if the dominant approach treats mitigation as a homogeneous set of practices, our goal is to better discriminate them to better understand the effects of PDCC. In a first study (N=146), participants were exposed to a climate change report in a local (vs. distant) context. Then, they were instructed to rate their intention to adopt 16 mitigation practices, divided into two categories: frequent, low-cost but anecdotical practices (e.g., turning off electronic devices), and infrequent, high-cost but impactful ones (e.g., buying second-hand clothes). Results showed that a local framing did not influence the intention to adopt anecdotical behaviors, but increased the intention for impactful ones, by reducing PDCC. In a second study (N=133), after manipulating PDCC, we focused on a significant practice (reducing meat consumption) and manipulated its description (reasons vs. means). Results showed that PDCC influenced the intention to eat less meat, but only when the means were presented. However, no effect was observed on actual behaviors during a simulated food shopping scenario. Our discussion will focus on our most recent work, aiming to specify the effects of PDCC for reducing meat consumption by taking into account the individual habit of doing so. References GREC-SUD. (s.d.). Le Grec Sud n'est pas seul : des initiatives similaires se développent dans les régions. Consulté le 9 janvier 2024, à l’adresse http://www.grec-sud.fr/nouvelles/le-grec-sud-nest-pas-seul-des-initiatives-similaires-se-developpent-dans-les-regions/ Keller, E., Marsh, J. E., Richardson, B. H., & Ball, L. J. (2022). A systematic review of the psychological distance of climate change : Towards the development of an evidence-based construct. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 81, 101822. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2022.101822 Langlais, C., Bertoldo, R., Guignard, S., & Sénémeaud, C. (2022). « Il faut faire vite, ça chauffe » : Distance psychologique, changement climatique et comportements écocitoyens. In Anticipation psychologique et représentations de l’avenir : Enjeux théoriques, méthodologiques et pratiques (p. 67‑94). Mardaga.

Domaines

Psychologie
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Dates et versions

hal-04585764 , version 1 (23-05-2024)

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  • HAL Id : hal-04585764 , version 1

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Camille Langlais, Christophe Demarque, Cécile Sénémeaud. Reducing the psychological distance of climate change to promote mitigation: What if it depends on mitigation practices?. Overcoming Obstacles to Climate Change Mitigation International and Interdisciplinary Scientific Conference, The interdisciplinary research project “Overcoming Obstacles and Disincentives to Climate Change Mitigation” (2o2cm), May 2024, Louvain-la Neuve, Belgium. ⟨hal-04585764⟩
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