This is something we’ve known about for quite some time, but it is nice to see it quantified. For those who don’t know about the “Weepy Bill McKibben Effect” or the founder of 350.org, here is a good primer.
But my tears started before anyone said a word. As the service started, dozens choristers from around the world carried three things down the aisle and to the altar: pieces of dead coral bleached by hot ocean temperatures; stones uncovered by retreating glaciers; and small, shriveled ears of corn from drought-stricken parts of Africa.
This study helps explain this emotionalism.
The Role of Emotion in Global Warming Policy Support and Opposition
Nicholas Smith1,* and Anthony Leiserowitz
Prior research has found that affect and affective imagery strongly influence public support for global warming. This article extends this literature by exploring the separate influence of discrete emotions. Utilizing a nationally representative survey in the United States, this study found that discrete emotions were stronger predictors of global warming policy support than cultural worldviews, negative affect, image associations, or sociodemographic variables. In particular, worry, interest, and hope were strongly associated with increased policy support. The results contribute to experiential theories of risk information processing and suggest that discrete emotions play a significant role in public support for climate change policy. Implications for climate change communication are also discussed.
In summary, this research found that discrete emotions—especially worry, interest, and hope—appear to have a large influence on American climate change policy preferences. The challenge for communication strategists is how best to cue these powerful motivations to promote public engagement with climate change solutions.
Translation: they need more weepy Bill types to get action they desire, because the climate rationalists of the world just aren’t buying the emotional hype.
The paper is open access, read it here: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/risa.12140/pdf
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Harry Passfield says: August 6, 2014 at 7:15 am
Mike McMillan says August 6, 2014 at 4:53 am …
Mike, I’ll see your Jejune and raise you a soi disante (scientist). 🙂
Mais, soi-disant est un adjectif composé invariable : il ne prend aucune marque de féminin ni de pluriel. 😉
The French are moving in? There goes the neighborhood …
Corals are in great danger from eco-tourists damaging them by taking away chunks as souvenirs.
… And News just in, McKibben’s tears responsible for alarming rise in sea levels.:)
These emotions are driven by the notion that mankind is special, important, holds some significance place, role, purpose in the cosmos. Nope. I first saw this following image in one of my children’s early trivia books and recently on the internet. All 7 billion humans on earth could be stacked inside the confines of the Grand Canyon. Actually, depending on compression, in less than 25% of it. Room to spare. Every one of the 7 billion could be allocated 400 sq ft, (see an example at Ikea) and fit inside the state boundaries of Colorado. That’s not “too many people.” The problem must be something else. The correct answer requires the correct problem.
Remember what P.J. O’Rourke said, the only thing you need to know about climate change is there is nothing we can do about it. Hold the tears!
The current Global Warming alarmistist Bill McKibben is reincarnation of the lying coward Dr. Smith character from Lost in Space.
http://m.youtube.com/?#/watch?v=JXIbRjpQMNY
WTF is “public support for global warming”? They want more?
I just think they are crumbling and their now excuse is to plead for forgiveness for telling a lie. I think our present PM summed it up aptly when he said before election ‘Global warming and climate change is a load of crap!”
I cried too, but they were tears of laughter!!
Did he get paid? Crocodile tears if he did. Yes whatever we do, stop pollution, sustainable agriculture, it will not change the climate nor weather.
They needed a few positive emotion options: Approval, Satisfaction, Joy, Contentment, Vindication, etc.