Is Psychological Distance Still a Large Barrier to Climate Activism Globally? 

Currently, climate change has become a significant threat to the world. If people are not concerned about controlling climate change anymore, the earth’s future and the existence of human beings could be in danger.

Though psychology is not a topic that has always been discussed along with climate change, human psychology has a central role in climate change.

As the impacts of global climatic change, the mental health of human beings is in danger. Therefore, it is essential to control these highly dynamic climate changes in the world to avoid this situation. 

But did you know that human psychological concepts also can affect controlling climate change as well? 

There are five main barriers to climate action in the human mind. They are distance, doom, dissonance, denial, and identity. Psychological distance is one of the main barriers to climate activism. A detailed report about this can be read here.

What is the psychological distance?

Psychological distance is how people feel about how much they are out of frame from a matter. If there is any phenomenon, sometimes people feel like it does not concern them or they have nothing to do with that phenomenon. This is called psychological distance.

, how far a person is from a unique phenomenon is psychological distance.

The distance from a phenomenon is not just a physical parameter. It is about some parameters people build up in their minds. Therefore, those parameters can be changed from person to person. It depends on their background.

Usually, when society fights against climate change, related organizations and other parties assume that people see climate change as a problem that the world has to face in the far future. But, it will only affect some of the regions even then. So, people are unmotivated and not keen on actions to control climate change. 

This is the concept of psychological distance on climate change.

But recently, it was found in broad research that most people are aware of climate change, and though they cannot see the noticeable result directly, they know that climate change is an important and timely issue in the world. More details about it can be found here. Archived.

 Dr. Anne M. van Valkengoed of the University of Groningen in the Netherlands did above mentioned research with her colleagues. They used opinion polls for more than 100,000 participants representing 121 countries. According to their votes, more than 50% of the participants believe climate change is affecting them now or will affect the near future, and it`s not limited to countries far away. And the researchers state that climate change is not that distant psychologically for most people, so it will only affect climate activism a little in the future.

There are a few main categories of psychological distance. They are geographical distance, social distance, temporal distance, and uncertainty or skepticism. More details about it can be read here 

This article discusses psychological distance and its involvement in climate change.

Psychological distance effect on climate changes

Regarding climate change, human involvement is most important to control . When factors concerning climate change are discussed, human involvement, awareness, and keenness are thoroughly explained. So, humans have a huge role in climate change control and adaptation.

Human psychology is the main thing that makes a human into anything. So, there is a huge role in psychology in climate change. 

When people are well aware and keen on climatic change and their adaptations, they understand the importance of climatic change. Therefore, it is easy to solve when the psychological distance decreases toward climate change.

The four main categories in psychological distance affect the human psychological distance increase on climate change.

Geographic distance – “Climate change will likely affect my local area.”

            “Climate change will mostly affect areas far away from here.”

Social distance – “Climate change is likely to have a big impact on people like me.”

  “Climate change will mostly affect developing/developed countries.”

Temporal distance – “When, if at all, do you think our country will start to feel the effect of climate changes?

Uncertainty/Skepticism – “I am certain that climate change is happening.”

    “I am uncertain that climate change is happening.”

Support of people is critical in climatic change adaptations. Humans should be more aware of that and have a good understanding. 

Sometimes, people adduce different reasons to ignore climate change by themselves. They say it will not happen until we die, so we don’t need to worry. Or it will not affect our area as we are already in a room with a good climate. Or we don’t care because we have many options if climate change affects our site. These opinions may lead people away from climate change knowledge and increase the psychological distance from climatic changes.

With time, everyone thought psychological distance increased from the climate changes. But as mentioned above, people today are aware of this topic. Thank all the awareness and academic knowledge that the government and non-government parties give, people have a good knowledge and understanding of climate change, and the psychological distance became lower towards this.

With the decreasing psychological distance, the concern on the matter of the people increases. When people are concerned about the issue, they become more motivated by climate change adaptations. Or they try to show positive attitudes towards climate change mitigation or support mitigation policies.

So, minimizing psychological distance on climate change supports climate change adaptation at a higher level.

How to overcome or decrease the psychological distance in climate change?

The primary responsibility for overcoming overcomes psychological distance in climate change was in the hands of policymakers. They have to communicate and share their ideas on climate change with the community and develop climate adaptation and mitigation policies which are comprehensible to society.

Media, the government, and non-government parties are responsible for making the community more aware of climate change matters. Also, these parties must make the community believe these climate changes and related issues have a solution. For that solution, people have a duty as a community and as individuals. 

We can work together to mitigate climate change for the world’s future and for the better present. This message should be delivered to the community through the parties, including the media.

 Embracing these ideas in the community is the best method to overcome psychological distance in climate change in society.

Now, numerous organizations, experts, and media support climate change awareness. That is how the psychological distance is becoming lower and lower. This is a good trend in the world, and we can make hope for a better world with good climate change mitigation and future adaptations.More details about how to how to make the concept of climate change less abstract can be read here.

In research done around a decade ago (using UK participants )about  The psychological distance of climate change, the psychological distance of people on climate change is researched. Even in that time, more than 40% of the participants accepted that they were already experiencing the adverse effects of climate change. However, psychological distance and proximity are different in various dimensions.

To get a viewpoint of a local psychology expert on the issue, we contacted Dr. Kalahari Pitigala, a consultant psychologist who has decades of experience in psychology. She explains that people living all over the world face many psychological issues due to the intensifying natural disasters and weather pattern changes. She pointed out that in European countries, some researchers found a relationship between excessive heat in the summer season and suicide rates. Even though Sri Lanka is highly influenced by climate change, however, in Sri Lanka, the mental health issues which are recorded under the influence of climate change are relatively low. As for the reasons for that situation, she says the awareness of climate change of the general public of Sri Lanka and psychology experts needs to be improved. So, she implies that the psychological proximity to climate change in Western countries cannot be expected in the countries like Sri Lanka. She added that more awareness and information about this should be given to the general public to make them more proximate psychologically to global climate change.

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