The Future is Now: Reducing Psychological Distance to Increase Public Engagement with Climate Change

TLDR

Many people view climate change as a psychologically distant threat, imagining it as uncertain events far in the future, affecting distant places and people unlike themselves. This study tests whether framing climate change messages to reduce psychological distance can boost public engagement. In a randomized experiment with 333 Australian residents, participants were assigned to either a distal or proximal framing condition and then completed measures of psychological distance, concern, and mitigation intentions. Analyses showed that psychological distance comprises geographic, temporal, social, and uncertainty dimensions, and that the proximal frame increased concern and intentions through reduced uncertainty and social distance, indicating that reducing psychological distance can enhance engagement.

Abstract

Many people perceive climate change as psychologically distant— a set of uncertain events that might occur far in the future, impacting distant places and affecting people dissimilar to themselves. In this study, we employed construal level theory to investigate whether a climate change communication intervention could increase public engagement by reducing the psychological distance of climate change. Australian residents ( N = 333) were randomly assigned to one of two treatment conditions: one framed to increase psychological distance to climate change (distal frame), and the other framed to reduce psychological distance (proximal frame). Participants then completed measures of psychological distance of climate change impacts, climate change concern, and intentions to engage in mitigation behavior. Principal components analysis indicated that psychological distance to climate change was best conceptualized as a multidimensional construct consisting of four components: geographic, temporal, social, and uncertainty. Path analysis revealed the effect of the treatment frame on climate change concern and intentions was fully mediated by psychological distance dimensions related to uncertainty and social distance. Our results suggest that climate communications framed to reduce psychological distance represent a promising strategy for increasing public engagement with climate change.