The majority do not believe that they will be affected by climate change
Published 13.11
“Climate change is something that affects others.”
That's what 65 percent of participants from 17 countries believe in a new study.
It's a meta-analysis of 83 studies with 70,000 participants conducted by researchers at the University of Gothenburg. It shows that climate-related risks are underestimated and perceived as more likely for someone else compared to oneself.
- The studies we have compiled do not measure people's actual risk. We cannot say whether individual people's risk assessments are overoptimistic, but at a group level we see that the majority assess their own risk as lower than others', says Magnus Bergquist, senior lecturer in psychology, in a press release.
Europeans underestimated the most
According to the study, assessments are most skewed when people compare themselves to "general others", such as compatriots or humanity in general - and within countries with lower risk. The deviation was greatest among Europeans.
In 81 of the 83 studies, participants assessed their own risk as lower than others or the average, both for extreme weather and general climate-related risks.
– We found the effect in all studies except two, where the participants were farmers in China and South Korea who had been directly exposed to the consequences of climate change. This suggests that experience reduces the effect, says Pär Bjälkebring, senior lecturer in psychology.
“Hinders action”
According to the study, our understanding of climate-related risks is limited.
– Even though people realize the actual risks that climate change entails, many seem to perceive the risks as primarily affecting someone else. It is a psychological distortion that, in the worst case, can slow down both climate adaptation and climate action, says Magnus Bergquist.
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