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Climate change skepticism as a psychological coping strategy
Author(s) -
Haltinner Kristin,
Sarathchandra Dilshani
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
sociology compass
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.782
H-Index - 31
ISSN - 1751-9020
DOI - 10.1111/soc4.12586
Subject(s) - skepticism , scholarship , denial , climate change , argument (complex analysis) , environmental ethics , sociology , epistemology , coping (psychology) , social psychology , construct (python library) , psychology , political science , law , ecology , philosophy , psychoanalysis , biology , biochemistry , chemistry , psychiatry , computer science , programming language
This article explores current sociological scholarship on climate skepticism and, drawing on recent literature in social psychology and behavioral science, presents an argument for future research on the relationship between emotion, information aversion, and climate denial. We extrapolate and unite these disconnected bodies of scholarship to argue that strong emotions such as fear may drive climate change skepticism and denial among some adherents. By partnering the scholarship outlined above with advances in research on conspiracy ideation, we argue that climate change skepticism and denial is, at least in some cases, a form of an exaggerated ostrich effect, whereby adherents are so driven to avoid learning about a specific problem; they actively seek to construct an alternative, safer, narrative. Given this predisposition, attempting to challenge such skepticism with information is counterproductive. As such, this paper presents alternative possibilities for communicating research findings on climate change.