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Political ideology and psychological reactance: how serious should climate change be?

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  • Eugene Y. Chan

    (Toronto Metropolitan University)

  • Jack Lin

    (California State University Northridge)

Abstract

The divide in how people with different political views act upon climate change is evident, with conservatives generally less likely to take action to limit the effects of climate change. Typical communications aimed at conveying the importance of climate change and its effects on both the environment and human well-being typically stress the “seriousness” of such effects. In the current examination, we posit that using such adjectives can actually exacerbate the left–right divide. This is likely because, we propose, conservatives are higher on psychological reactance, and so they see communications conveying the “gravity” of climate change to be a limitation of their free will, thus producing the opposite behaviors of what such communications intend. We find support for our hypothesis in two studies with Americans with both dispositional as well as situational psychological reactance measures. Our results offer novel policy implications regarding by suggesting how a typical communication tactic could actually hamper the very aims of such communications.

Suggested Citation

  • Eugene Y. Chan & Jack Lin, 2022. "Political ideology and psychological reactance: how serious should climate change be?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 172(1), pages 1-22, May.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:climat:v:172:y:2022:i:1:d:10.1007_s10584-022-03372-5
    DOI: 10.1007/s10584-022-03372-5
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    2. Jessica R. Murfree, 2023. "Exploring Major League Baseball Fans’ Climate Change Risk Perceptions and Adaptation Willingness," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 15(10), pages 1-17, May.
    3. Rains, Stephen A. & Colombo, Paulina M. & Quick, Brian L. & Kriss, Lauren A., 2022. "State mask mandates and psychological reactance theory: The role of political partisanship and COVID-19 risk in mask adoption and resistance," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 314(C).
    4. Volha Charnysh & Jared Kalow & Evan Lieberman & Erin Walk, 2024. "How information about historic carbon emissions affects support for climate aid: evidence from a survey experiment," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 177(12), pages 1-17, December.
    5. W. P. Malecki & Jagadish Thaker & Matthew Schneider-Mayerson, 2025. "Climate and authoritarianism in two global powers: exploring right-wing and left-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and climate concern and activism in the USA and India," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 178(2), pages 1-20, February.

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