February 14, 2025
Why are people denying climate change? Study reveals unexpected results

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More droughts, hotter weather, more torrential rains as in this photo showing the flooding of the Ahr valley in Germany in 2021: Despite these signs, many people question the existence of climate change or refuse to believe that This is mainly caused by human activity. Credit: Volker Lannert/University of Bonn

Do climate change deniers twist the facts to avoid modifying their environmentally harmful behavior? Researchers at the University of Bonn and the Institute of Labor Economics (IZA) conducted an online experiment involving 4,000 American adults, and found no evidence to support this idea. The authors of the study themselves were surprised by the results. It remains to be seen whether this is good or bad news for the fight against global warming. This study has been published in the journal nature climate change,

A surprisingly large number of people still underestimate the impact of climate change or deny that it is primarily a product of human activity. But why? One hypothesis is that these misconceptions are rooted in a specific form of self-deception, namely that people find it easier to live with their climate failures if they do not believe things will actually get that bad.

“We call this thought process ‘motivated reasoning’,” says Professor Florian Zimmermann, an economist at the University of Bonn and research director of IZA.

Motivated reasoning helps us justify our behavior. For example, someone who flies on vacation several times a year may give himself the excuse that the plane will fly even without him, or that just one flight won’t make a difference, or – even worse – someone The existence of man-made climate change has been proven anyway. All of these patterns of reasoning are examples of motivated reasoning. Twisting the facts until it allows us to maintain our positive image while maintaining our harmful behavior.

Self-deception to maintain a positive self-image

But what role does this form of self-deception play in people’s thinking about climate change? Previously, little scientific evidence was presented to answer this question. The latest study has now closed this knowledge gap – and revealed some unexpected results. Zimmerman and his colleague Lasse Stotzer ran a series of online experiments using a representative sample of 4,000 American adults.

At the center of the experiments was a $20 donation. The participants were randomly allocated to one of two groups. Members of the first group were able to split $20 between two organizations both committed to combating climate change. In contrast, people in the second group could have decided to keep the $20 instead of giving it away and would have actually received the money in the end.

“Whoever keeps the donation will have to justify it to themselves,” says Zimmermann, who is also a member of the ECONtribute Cluster of Excellence, the Collaborative Research Center TransRegio 224 and the Transdisciplinary Research Area Individuals and Societies at the University of Bonn. Are. “One way to do this is to deny the existence of climate change.”

As it turned out, about half of the other group decided to keep the money. The researchers now wanted to know whether these individuals would retrospectively justify their decision by denying climate change. The two groups were randomly placed together. Therefore, without “motivated argument”, they must essentially share similar attitudes towards man-made global warming. However, if those who kept the money for themselves justified their actions through self-deception, their group should display greater skepticism on climate change.

“Yet we saw no sign of that effect,” Zimmerman revealed.

Climate change denial: identifying one’s identity?

This conclusion also emerged in two other experiments.

“In other words, our study gave us no indication that widespread misconceptions about climate change are due to this kind of self-deception,” Zimmerman says, summarizing their work. At first glance, this is good news for policymakers, as the results may mean that it is indeed possible to correct climate change misconceptions simply by providing comprehensive information. Conversely, if people are bending reality, this approach is a very non-starter.

However, Zimmerman advises caution, saying, “Our data reveal some signs of a type of motivated reasoning, particularly that denying the existence of man-made global warming is part of the political identity of some groups of people.”

Put another way, some people may define themselves to some extent by the fact that they do not believe in climate change. As far as they are concerned, this way of thinking is an important quality that sets them apart from other political groups, and thus they may not care what researchers have to say on the subject.

more information:
A representative survey experiment of induced climate change denial, nature climate change (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41558-023-01910-2

Provided by the University of Bonn

Citation: Why are people denying climate change? Study reveals unexpected results (2024, 2 February) Retrieved 2 February 2024

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Source: phys.org

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