Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts, and Responses

Psychology and Climate Change: Human Perceptions, Impacts, and Responses organizes and summarizes recent psychological research that relates to the issue of climate change. The book covers topics such as how people perceive and respond to climate change, how people understand and communicate about the issue, how it impacts individuals and communities, particularly vulnerable communities, and how individuals and communities can best prepare for and mitigate negative climate change impacts. It addresses the topic at multiple scales, from individuals to close social networks and communities. Further, it considers the role of social diversity in shaping vulnerability and reactions to climate change.

Psychology and Climate Change describes the implications of psychological processes such as perceptions and motivations (e.g., risk perception, motivated cognition, denial), emotional responses, group identities, mental health and well-being, sense of place, and behavior (mitigation and adaptation). The book strives to engage diverse stakeholders, from multiple disciplines in addition to psychology, and at every level of decision making - individual, community, national, and international, to understand the ways in which human capabilities and tendencies can and should shape policy and action to address the urgent and very real issue of climate change.

• Examines the role of knowledge, norms, experience, and social context in climate change awareness and action
• Considers the role of identity threat, identity-based motivation, and belonging
• Presents a conceptual framework for classifying individual and household behavior
• Develops a model to explain environmentally sustainable behavior
• Draws on what we know about participation in collective action
• Describes ways to improve the effectiveness of climate change communication efforts
• Discusses the difference between acute climate change events and slowly-emerging changes on our mental health
• Addresses psychological stress and injury related to global climate change from an intersectional justice perspective
• Promotes individual and community resilience

Dr. Susan Clayton is the Whitmore-Williams Professor of Psychology at the College of Wooster in Ohio. Her PhD, in social psychology, is from Yale University. Dr. Clayton’s research examines people’s relationship with the natural environment, how it is socially constructed, and how it is affected by changing environmental conditions; she is co-author of the widely used Climate Change Anxiety Scale. A fellow of the American Psychological Association and the International Association of Applied Psychology, she was a lead author on the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. She continues to research the ways in which climate change is affecting people’s lives and well-being.

Dr. Christie Manning, PhD, is a cognitive and biological psychologist who teaches in the interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Department at Macalester College in Minnesota. Her research explores how climate storytelling influences the psychological antecedents of community-level climate action, and how climate injustice impacts human well-being. Her recent co-authored books include Fostering Sustainability in Higher Education, and the academic textbook, Psychology for Sustainability, 6e. Dr Manning is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association.