Examining Climate Emotions That Accompany Personal Experiences Of Climate Change: A Dynamic Network Analysis

Authors

  • Michelle Ng
    Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Emmett Interdisciplinary Program in Environment and Resources, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • Nilam Ram
    Department of Communication, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA; Department of Psychology, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • Sara M. Constantino
    Doerr School of Sustainability, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA
  • Nathaniel Geiger
    School for Environment and Sustainability, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA; The Media School, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, USA

Abstract

Climate change elicits emotional responses for many individuals — especially those who have personally experienced its impacts. While it is widely accepted that climate emotions co-occur at one time point and change over time, little is known about the temporal dynamics among climate emotions (that is, their relations over time) and how those dynamics differ based on personal experiences of climate change. In this study, we applied a multivariate multilevel model to five-wave panel data collected from 3,936 American adults to examine the dynamics among 11 climate emotions that accompany personal experiences of climate change. We observed inhibitory and excitatory dynamics between different pairs of climate emotions, with some emotions (like pride) exhibiting greater sensitivity to others and some emotions (like anxiety) appearing more central within the emotional network. In general, participants with fewer personal experiences of climate change exhibited more interdependence among their climate emotions than those with more. Taken together, our results suggest that climate emotions, which underpin both climate action and well-being, change interdependently and that individuals’ lived experiences of climate change shape how their entire climate emotion network changes over time.