(PS1-B30) Responses to the Threat of Climate Change: Viewed Through the Lens of Health Behaviors

There are striking similarities between emotional and behavioral responses to the COVID pandemic and the threat of climate change. Both are associated with profound health consequences and failures to take preventive action to forestall these severe outcomes. Behavioral science research on engagement in health behaviors may serve as a lens through which to better understand beliefs and actions associated with both crises. In addition, certain cultural factors – political affiliation and ideology – have consistently been associated with responses to these crises.

The purpose of the current study is to examine individual differences in attitudinal and behavioral responses to COVID and climate change, understanding the degree to which both may be predicted by political beliefs as well as psychological factors associated with health behaviors: locus of control, anxiety sensitivity (AS), delay discounting (DD), and intolerance of uncertainty. We also examine whether, in the context of these potential shared predictors, there are additional direct links between those who reject preventative actions against COVID and those who reject the reality and severity of climate change.

Participants (N=265) were US adults (62% male; 55% Non-Hispanic White; 45% Democrat) who completed an online survey. Stepwise multiple linear/logistic regressions examined which variables provided non-redundant prediction in our models of climate change beliefs and concerns, COVID protective behaviors (mask-wearing and vaccine acceptance), and finally, the predictive significance of these factors and COVID behaviors on climate change views. For climate change, results showed that prediction provided by political affiliation was explained by ideological factors (decreased anti-egalitarianism). Internal locus of control offered significant prediction of both lower concern and belief in climate change. Higher AS and steeper DD offered additional significant prediction of lower concerns and beliefs in climate change, respectively, reflecting large effect sizes. Inclusion of COVID behaviors in the fuller model of climate change views did not provide additional predictive significance. For prediction of COVID protective behaviors, lower authoritarianism and greater preference for group-based dominance (social dominance orientation) predicted decreased mask wearing, whereas greater preference for group-based dominance and weaker internal locus of control predicted decreased COVID vaccine acceptance.

In addition to providing further support for the role of political affiliation/ideology in climate change views, the current study underscores the importance of a health behavior frame in understanding climate change concerns and beliefs. Known risk factors for negative health behaviors—prominently locus of control, AS, and DD—contribute to the understanding of these concerns and beliefs, consistent with the mechanistic, health behavior focus on climate change recommended in the NIH’s Science of Behavior Change initiative: https://scienceofbehaviorchange.org/climate-change. Indeed, empirical work has started to examine pro-environmental behavior interventions which target mechanistic factors like DD (Lee et al., 2020).