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)
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
“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