IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/tcpoxx/v19y2019i4p511-523.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unstoppable climate change? The influence of fatalistic beliefs about climate change on behavioural change and willingness to pay cross-nationally

Author

Listed:
  • Adam Mayer
  • E. Keith Smith

Abstract

Although climate change is an urgent problem, behavioural and policy responses have not yet been sufficient to either reduce the volume of greenhouse gas emissions or adapt to a disrupted climate system. Significant efforts have been made to raise public awareness of the dangers posed by climate change. One reason why these efforts might not be sufficient is rooted in people’s need to feel efficacy to solve complex problems; the belief that climate change is unstoppable might thwart action even among the concerned. This paper tests for the effect of fatalistic beliefs on behavioural change and willingness to pay to address climate change using two cross-national surveys representing over 50,000 people in 48 nations.Key policy insights The perception that climate change poses a risk or danger increases the likelihood of behavioural change and willingness to pay to address climate change. The belief that climate change is unstoppable reduces the behavioural and policy response to climate change and moderates risk perception. Communicators and policy leaders should carefully frame climate change as a difficult, yet solvable, problem to circumvent fatalistic beliefs.

Suggested Citation

  • Adam Mayer & E. Keith Smith, 2019. "Unstoppable climate change? The influence of fatalistic beliefs about climate change on behavioural change and willingness to pay cross-nationally," Climate Policy, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 19(4), pages 511-523, April.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:tcpoxx:v:19:y:2019:i:4:p:511-523
    DOI: 10.1080/14693062.2018.1532872
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/14693062.2018.1532872
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/14693062.2018.1532872?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.

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Ting Liu & Nick Shryane & Mark Elliot, 2022. "Attitudes to climate change risk: classification of and transitions in the UK population between 2012 and 2020," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 9(1), pages 1-15, December.
    2. Stephanie J. Zawadzki & Thijs Bouman & Linda Steg & Vladimir Bojarskich & Perri B. Druen, 2020. "Translating climate beliefs into action in a changing political landscape," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 161(1), pages 21-42, July.
    3. Brandi S. Morris & Polymeros Chrysochou & Simon T. Karg & Panagiotis Mitkidis, 2020. "Optimistic vs. pessimistic endings in climate change appeals," Palgrave Communications, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 7(1), pages 1-8, December.
    4. D. Liliana González-Hernández & Erik W. Meijles & Frank Vanclay, 2019. "Household Barriers to Climate Change Action: Perspectives from Nuevo Leon, Mexico," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(15), pages 1-14, August.
    5. Winkelmann, Ricarda & Donges, Jonathan F. & Smith, E. Keith & Milkoreit, Manjana & Eder, Christina & Heitzig, Jobst & Katsanidou, Alexia & Wiedermann, Marc & Wunderling, Nico & Lenton, Timothy M., 2022. "Social tipping processes towards climate action: A conceptual framework," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 192(C).
    6. Jakub Sokołowski & Piotr Lewandowski & Jan Frankowski, 2023. "How to Prevent Yellow Vests? Evaluating Preferences for a Carbon Tax with a Discrete Choice Experiment," IBS Working Papers 03/2023, Instytut Badan Strukturalnych.
    7. 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.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    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:taf:tcpoxx:v:19:y:2019:i:4:p:511-523. 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.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/tcpo20 .

    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.