The Role of Affect in Climate Communication

Jeffrey T. KiehlClimate Change Research Section

National Center for Atmospheric Research

NCAR is sponsored by the National Science Foundation

on Faculty Fellowship Leave to UC Santa Cruz (1/12-1/13)

jtkon@ucar.edu

Outline

•Public Concern Over Global Warming

•Requires More Than: Just the Facts Ma’am

•Psychological Barriers & Climate Communication

• Including Affect in Communication: A Personal Experiment

•Summary

Public Concern Over Global Warming

Observations

TheoryModels

PublicAwarenes

s

Behavior

Traditional Information Deficit Model

“affect ... has rarely been recognized as an important component in human judgment and decision making. Perhaps befitting its rationalistic origins, the main focus of descriptive decision research has been cognitive, rather than affective”

Slovic et al. (2002)

Affect

“... affective reactions to stimuli are often the very first reactions, occurring automatically and subsequently guiding information processing and judgment.”

Slovic et al. (2005)

• Transformation in Ways We Communicate

• Basic Understanding of Science

• Vested Interests (Oreskes & Conway, 2011) • Social, Economic & Cultural Dimensions • Psychological Dimensions

Barriers to CommunicatingClimate Change

• Perceived Loss* • Affect & Defense Mechanisms* • Typological Differences • Sense of Self, Identity & Consumerism • Relatedness to Environment

Psychological Dimensions

• Challenge to Religious Beliefs.. Loss of Faith • Fear of Government Control ..... Loss of Freedom • Threat to the Economy .............. Loss of Safety

• Threat to Fossil Fuel Industry .... Loss of Wealth

Perceived Loss as a Barrier to Communication

Beliefs

Information

Behavior

SocialNorms

Values

{Science, Education, Media,...}

{Religious systems, Family systems, Personality structure}

{Social Constructs, Political Systems, Economic Systems}

Affect & Values

Affective Reactions to News of Global Warming

Fear

Guilt

Defiance

Helplessness

Anger

Numbness

Powerless

All are Signatures of Trauma

Denial

Projection

Rationalization

Regression

Distortion

Withdrawal

Dissociation

Splitting

Defense Mechanisms

Unconscious

Conscious

Social

Emotions, Affect,Associative Processing

Cognitive, Analytic,Logical

Values, Beliefs,Laws

Three processesthat influence ourway of relating tothe outer world

Part I Part II Part III

ScientificNarrative

How DoYou Feel?

ExploreSolutions

Including Affect in CommunicationA Three Stage Process

Observations

TheoryModels

Public Awarenes

s

Behavior

Narratives

ValueSystems

ImagesMetaphor

s

Framing

Rhetoric“The three means of effective persuasion ... 1) to reason logically 2) to understand human character and goodness in their various forms 3) to understand emotions” The Rhetoric

Aristotle (384 - 322 BC)