IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/spr/endesu/v26y2024i7d10.1007_s10668-023-03339-1.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Face it and shoulder it jointly: from personal experience to mitigation behavior of climate change

Author

Listed:
  • Yuling Fu

    (Chengdu University of Technology)

  • Jiaxin Shi

    (South China Normal University)

  • Dan Su

    (Southwest University)

  • Fumin Deng

    (Sichuan University)

Abstract

People are increasingly exposed to extreme weather events with the escalation of global warming. Understanding how individuals face and respond to it is crucial for climate mitigation. In the present study, we surveyed a sample of 856 people in five metropolitan areas in China to examine how personal experiences of extreme weather events affect individuals’ low-carbon behavior through consequential and moral processing of climate change. The results indicate that people with personal experience of extreme weather events show significantly better cognitive judgment, emotional reactions, and mitigation behavior than those without such experience. Furthermore, to the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to illustrate that personal experience can initiate a sense of collective morality about climate change and predict the adoption of mitigating behaviors. Additionally, it can be seen that cognitive processing precedes emotional processing in the context of climate change. The present findings provide some evidence at the individual level for further moral philosophical discussions about climate change and offer insights for social solutions about promoting sustainable environmental behaviors. We point out that mechanisms of social cooperation among collectives and individuals used to deal with climate change deserve further research. We also discuss the implications and limitations.

Suggested Citation

  • Yuling Fu & Jiaxin Shi & Dan Su & Fumin Deng, 2024. "Face it and shoulder it jointly: from personal experience to mitigation behavior of climate change," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 26(7), pages 17319-17333, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:26:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03339-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10668-023-03339-1
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s10668-023-03339-1
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1007/s10668-023-03339-1?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Christina Demski & Stuart Capstick & Nick Pidgeon & Robert Gennaro Sposato & Alexa Spence, 2017. "Experience of extreme weather affects climate change mitigation and adaptation responses," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 140(2), pages 149-164, January.
    2. Rouven Doran & Gisela Böhm & Hans-Rüdiger Pfister & Katharine Steentjes & Nick Pidgeon, 2019. "Consequence evaluations and moral concerns about climate change: insights from nationally representative surveys across four European countries," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 22(5), pages 610-626, May.
    3. Xiao‐Fei Xie & Mei Wang & Ruo‐Gu Zhang & Jie Li & Qing‐Yuan Yu, 2011. "The Role of Emotions in Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 31(3), pages 450-465, March.
    4. Elke U. Weber, 2010. "What shapes perceptions of climate change?," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 1(3), pages 332-342, May.
    5. Matthew R. Sisco & Valentina Bosetti & Elke U. Weber, 2017. "When do extreme weather events generate attention to climate change?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 143(1), pages 227-241, July.
    6. George Wright & Fergus Bolger & Gene Rowe, 2002. "An Empirical Test of the Relative Validity of Expert and Lay Judgments of Risk," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 22(6), pages 1107-1122, December.
    7. Simone Dohle & Carmen Keller & Michael Siegrist, 2010. "Examining the Relationship Between Affect and Implicit Associations: Implications for Risk Perception," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 30(7), pages 1116-1128, July.
    8. Dim Coumou & Stefan Rahmstorf, 2012. "A decade of weather extremes," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(7), pages 491-496, July.
    9. Janis L Dickinson & Poppy McLeod & Robert Bloomfield & Shorna Allred, 2016. "Which Moral Foundations Predict Willingness to Make Lifestyle Changes to Avert Climate Change in the USA?," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(10), pages 1-11, October.
    10. Gisela Böhm & Hans-Rüdiger Pfister, 2017. "The perceiver’s social role and a risk’s causal structure as determinants of environmental risk evaluation," Journal of Risk Research, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(6), pages 732-759, June.
    11. Elke U. Weber, 2016. "What shapes perceptions of climate change? New research since 2010," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 7(1), pages 125-134, January.
    12. Susan Clayton & Patrick Devine-Wright & Paul C. Stern & Lorraine Whitmarsh & Amanda Carrico & Linda Steg & Janet Swim & Mirilia Bonnes, 2015. "Psychological research and global climate change," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 5(7), pages 640-646, July.
    13. Paul Slovic & Melissa L. Finucane & Ellen Peters & Donald G. MacGregor, 2004. "Risk as Analysis and Risk as Feelings: Some Thoughts about Affect, Reason, Risk, and Rationality," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 24(2), pages 311-322, April.
    14. Ezra M. Markowitz & Azim F. Shariff, 2012. "Climate change and moral judgement," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 2(4), pages 243-247, April.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Joseph P. Reser & Graham L. Bradley, 2020. "The nature, significance, and influence of perceived personal experience of climate change," Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Climate Change, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 11(5), September.
    2. Yingying Sun & Ziqiang Han, 2018. "Climate Change Risk Perception in Taiwan: Correlation with Individual and Societal Factors," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(1), pages 1-12, January.
    3. Elizabeth A Albright & Deserai Crow, 2019. "Beliefs about climate change in the aftermath of extreme flooding," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 155(1), pages 1-17, July.
    4. John McClure & Ilan Noy & Yoshi Kashima & Taciano L. Milfont, 2022. "Attributions for extreme weather events: science and the people," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 174(3), pages 1-17, October.
    5. Dai, Zhifeng & Hu, Juan & Liu, Xinheng & Yang, Mi, 2024. "ynamic time-domain and frequency-domain spillovers and portfolio strategies between climate change attention and energy-relevant markets," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 134(C).
    6. Ian G. J. Dawson & Johnnie E. V. Johnson, 2017. "Does Size Matter? A Study of Risk Perceptions of Global Population Growth," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 37(1), pages 65-81, January.
    7. D. Liliana González-Hernández & Raúl A. Aguirre-Gamboa & Erik W. Meijles, 2023. "The role of climate change perceptions and sociodemographics on reported mitigation efforts and performance among households in northeastern Mexico," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 25(2), pages 1853-1875, February.
    8. Marius Eisele & Christian Troost & Thomas Berger, 2021. "How Bayesian Are Farmers When Making Climate Adaptation Decisions? A Computer Laboratory Experiment for Parameterising Models of Expectation Formation," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 805-828, September.
    9. Zhiyong Yang & Ritesh Saini & Traci Freling, 2015. "How Anxiety Leads to Suboptimal Decisions Under Risky Choice Situations," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 35(10), pages 1789-1800, October.
    10. Jialing Huang & Janet Z. Yang & Haoran Chu, 2022. "Framing Climate Change Impacts as Moral Violations: The Pathway of Perceived Message Credibility," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(9), pages 1-19, April.
    11. Valentina Rizzoli, 2024. "The risk co-de model: detecting psychosocial processes of risk perception in natural language through machine learning," Journal of Computational Social Science, Springer, vol. 7(1), pages 217-239, April.
    12. Berkman, Henk & Jona, Jonathan & Soderstrom, Naomi, 2024. "Firm-specific climate risk and market valuation," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 112(C).
    13. Adrian Brügger & Moritz Gubler & Katharine Steentjes & Stuart B. Capstick, 2020. "Social Identity and Risk Perception Explain Participation in the Swiss Youth Climate Strikes," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(24), pages 1-17, December.
    14. Hayam Elshirbiny & Wokje Abrahamse, 2020. "Public risk perception of climate change in Egypt: a mixed methods study of predictors and implications," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 10(3), pages 242-254, September.
    15. Michael Siegrist & Joseph Árvai, 2020. "Risk Perception: Reflections on 40 Years of Research," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2191-2206, November.
    16. Dominic Balog‐Way & Katherine McComas & John Besley, 2020. "The Evolving Field of Risk Communication," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 40(S1), pages 2240-2262, November.
    17. Michael Siegrist & Bernadette Sütterlin, 2014. "Human and Nature‐Caused Hazards: The Affect Heuristic Causes Biased Decisions," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 34(8), pages 1482-1494, August.
    18. Julie L. Demuth, 2018. "Explicating Experience: Development of a Valid Scale of Past Hazard Experience for Tornadoes," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 38(9), pages 1921-1943, September.
    19. Brian Beckage & Katherine Lacasse & Jonathan M. Winter & Louis J. Gross & Nina Fefferman & Forrest M. Hoffman & Sara S. Metcalf & Travis Franck & Eric Carr & Asim Zia & Ann Kinzig, 2020. "The Earth has humans, so why don’t our climate models?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 163(1), pages 181-188, November.
    20. Lauri Peterson, 2021. "Silver Lining to Extreme Weather Events? Democracy and Climate Change Mitigation," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 21(1), pages 23-53, Winter.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:spr:endesu:v:26:y:2024:i:7:d:10.1007_s10668-023-03339-1. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.springer.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.