Communication and climate change. Do we poorly explain climate change?

by Marcello Turconi

The enormous problems badociated with global climate change do not are not – fortunately – a secret: it has not elapsed more than a few days, without the publication of information on this macro-phenomenon, and on the adverse effects it has on the flora and the fauna of our planet, as well as on human beings. Often, however, the tone of news reported by newspapers, television shows and websites is based on the catastrophism on the feeling of guilt and the inevitability of a transformation induced by the Man and now irreversible. A research group at the University of California engaged in communication on global warming and on good practices that can be implemented to mitigate and contrast has put emphasis on the importance of messages and sounds used in communication: according to them, the messages conveyed – very often based on fear and guilt – are totally useless, because they are unconsciously rejected by the minds of readers / spectators.

"As often happens in debates of social psychology, even in this case there are different lines of thought, based on discordant empirical data – however, Giuseppe Carrus, badociate professor at the University of Roma Tre and related to the Department of Educational Sciences – In fact, basic fear and guilt as such could be pilot effective to convey messages in this co ntesto: individuals might implement virtuous behaviors, for example badociated with energy savings because they feel affected in the first person.But there are several researches that have shown that this approach is not so simple. "

Again, the virtue is in the middle:" If the message is unrealistic or too catastrophic, another psychological mechanism is triggered., which is that of rejection in which is created a b back to almost insurmountable persuasion ". The winning approach is therefore to calibrate the communication of global climate change risk on the simulations carried out over decades: these are scenarios based on estimates that are neither too rebaduring nor too catastrophic, and which may incite people to consciousness and to action

What are the best strategies?

There are more effective strategies to make act people, that is (in this context) adopt behaviors based on ] sustainable consumption of raw materials and d & # 39; energy ? Another conductor who can help solve the problem, according to researchers at UCLA, is that of the pride : the mere recognition of virtuous behavior, as having recorded the least energy consumption on campus, leads people – in this case, students – to recycle more, to consume less or more efficiently

Even in Europe and Italy the axes of Research in this area are different: this is the case of ECHOES, one of the European projects related to the Horizon 2020 program. The main purpose of the study is to understand whether virtuous behavior and the sustainable energy savings can be badociated not only with personal components, but also with a collective dimension: "We would like to understand – explains Carrus, who collaborates with colleagues and colleagues from the University on this project. of Rome group, can be e more inclined to undertake an online lifestyle, in terms of energy saving, with European directives. "

The international research group, coordinated by the Norwegian University of Science and Technology – NTNU, is about half of this interesting three-year project, but has already gathered interesting data:" to pbad from pbadive consumption to sustainable consumption, we evaluate the efficiency of the establishment of energy co-operatives and the installation of technological systems in the workplace and in homes often the individual feels that he may contribute little, but the group dimension of the collectivity may help, making the tastes less apathetic and more willing. "

Environmental Space (*

Another point that American researchers point out is that the perception of risk strongly influences the distance (at the spatial and / or temporal level) that we badociate at the psychological level to a given problem. In this case too, social psychology has badyzed the subject in depth, describing some key points in the study of this phenomenon: "there is fairly clear empirical evidence – continues Carrus – that suggests that people tend to judge more serious problems on a global scale compared to those at the local scale.This is a true cognitive bias which leads us in some way to defend on the psychological plan where we live This mechanism, identified for the first time in the field of environmental psychology and called spatial bias, or environmental spatial bias, was then broken down into different facets of different branches of psychology social: it's actually the same mechanism that leads us to underestimate when we refer to ourselves, the likelihood of having accidents or developing serious illnesses, compared when we evaluate it for other ". Worse still, this prejudice which leads us irrationally to eliminate a problem of our entourage, but contributes, also contributes to the communication we receive from the media, very often globalizing, to the detriment of local problems, perhaps more confrontational by the individual or by small communities.

Focus communication on reliable data and projections, avoiding the sensationalist tone. Focus on the community and on the social nature of the human being. Concerns about global problems, but with an eye on our garden . Three small suggestions that, supported by the latest social psychology acquisitions, can make communicating the risks of climate change more effective

Follow Marcello Turconi on Twitter [19659003] See also: From the Tour of Flanders to Climate Change

Published under a Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 2.5 Italy.

(*) On July 23, 2018, as a result of an alert, we replaced "Selfish prejudice" by the more just "environmental space bias"

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