Tackling climate change with psychology

By Alistair Jones

SMU Office of Research & Tech Transfer – “People are social animals,” says Angela Leung, an Associate Professor of Psychology at Singapore Management University (SMU). “Their interactions with the environment and others within the environment can exert a powerful force on their thinking and action.”

Professor Leung is a Co-Editor-in-Chief of the Asian Journal of Social Psychology, which has recently published a special issue on “The Social Psychology of Climate Change in the Asian Context.” This special issue features eight articles offering important insights on how social and cultural psychology can contribute to a better understanding of the attitudes and responses to climate change in the Asian Pacific context.

These articles represent an important stride toward demonstrating how social and cultural psychologists can enrich the scientific study of climate change from a diverse scope, ranging from examining intrapersonal processes to interpersonal dynamics to sociopolitcial factors.

The Asia-Pacific region accounts for more than half of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions, and consumption of oil, gas and coal has increased by six percent during the past two decades.

Globally, four of the top-10 countries with the most greenhouse gas emissions are Asian – first-placed is China, third is India, fifth is Indonesia and seventh is Japan.

Rapid population and economic growth in the Asia-Pacific region during recent decades has had a profound impact on climate change. Five of the world's top-10 most populous countries are in Asia – China, India, Indonesia, Pakistan and Bangladesh.

Research has shown that growth in consumer products and the consumption of these products as a result of population growth and urbanisation have driven an increase in the volume of greenhouse gas emissions. The repercussions are felt beyond the big polluters.

“In some extreme cases, an entire community can be put on the brink of extinction due to the climate change crisis, such as the Pacific nation of Kiribati,” Professor Leung says.

Values and beliefs

So, how can a sociocultural psychological perspective be relevant to tackling climate change?

“The values and beliefs prevalent in a culture may affect how ready people are to address climate change,” says Professor Leung.

“Some recent studies have demonstrated that personal environmental concerns and values predict pro-environmental behavioural intentions less well in collectivistic societies, such as Japan or China. Instead, social norms can turn out to be a more powerful predictor in these societies.

“Individuals in Western cultures may be more driven by their personal beliefs and concerns toward climate change, whereas those in Asian cultures may be more driven by whether they see their group or the community to be concerned with climate change,” she says.

“Another angle contributed by the sociocultural psychological perspective is to acknowledge the impacts of climate change on human cultures beyond the more noticeable impacts on people’s health and the natural environment.

“We need to draw people’s attention to how climate change can impact human cultures, which includes both tangible (such as historical sites, monuments) and intangible components (such as traditions, practices, know-hows). 

“My collaborators and I have conducted two studies in Singapore and the U.S. and found that people generally show a high level of awareness of the cultural impacts of climate change. More importantly, perceiving cultural impacts of climate change can predict robustly whether people intend to engage in climate change mitigation behaviour, climate activism and support for climate policy.

“All these research insights suggest the value of adding a sociocultural dimension to the research on climate change,” Professor Leung says.

Global consciousness

There are systematic cultural differences in what motivates people to lead a more sustainable life in Asia, but are there commonalities?

“One way to explore the commonality across the Asia-Pacific region or even world cultures is to recognise the role of people’s global consciousness in encouraging pro-environmental engagement,” Professor Leung says.

“My own research suggests that if people embrace a cosmopolitan orientation – seeing themselves as a 'citizen of the world' – they are more likely to identify with three core qualities:

“First, they are more receptive to people and experiences from other cultures (cultural openness). Second, they express benevolence and generosity to others regardless of their nationalities due to their highly inclusive sense of belonging and justice (global pro-sociality). And third, they also show respect for cultural differences and want to preserve authentic forms of culture (respect for cultural diversity).

“My findings, as well as other research examining global identity, tend to reveal a consistent pattern that people’s cosmopolitan orientation is positively associated with their pro-environmental consciousness,” Professor Leung says.

Conversely, one of the predictors of climate change denial is a social dominance orientation (SDO) – an acceptance of human domination over nature and animals.

“The tendency to maintain dominance over the environment and to support the current status quo explains why high SDO individuals tend to deny environmental problems or reject solutions to these problems,” Professor Leung says.

“Researchers have suggested that there is a possibility of presenting a harmonious relationship with nature to be more aligned with the beliefs and values of high SDO people so that they see pro-environmental goals as still maintaining the existing status quo.

“For example, we can make them aware that the initiatives of forest conservation can stimulate economic growth and create jobs. Similarly, the initiatives of preserving cultural heritage sites can bring about profits to the tourist sectors.”

Cross-cultural understanding

Among other research findings in the journal’s special issue is a study of moral disengagement in Australia, which can explain why scepticism about climate change, denial of personal efficacy, and perceived lack of responsibility reduces engagement in pro-environmental behaviours.

Another finding, from a survey among household members in China, showed that educational attainment can contribute to higher environmental concern in that country.

A key message in the Asian Journal of Social Psychology's special issue is that Asian populations and societies have been under-represented in psychological and behavioural research.

“One important gap to fill is to promote more cross-cultural understanding of how people react to and interpret climate change,” Professor Leung says.

“This is a particularly important agenda for climate change research because it is a global crisis that requires collaborative initiatives from different countries in the world, such as the Paris Agreement.

“We need to understand not only the individuals’ psychological processes, but also the influence of the sociocultural contexts, to manage this global societal challenge.”

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