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Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom

Gisela Böhm, Hans-Rüdiger Pfister, Rouven Doran, Charles A. Ogunbode, Wouter Poortinga, Endre Tvinnereim, Kat Steentjes Orcid Logo, Claire Mays, Raquel Bertoldo, Marco Sonnberger, Nicholas Pidgeon

Frontiers in Psychology, Volume: 14, Start page: 1139133

Swansea University Author: Kat Steentjes Orcid Logo

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DOI (Published version): 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139133

Abstract

We present a study of emotional reactions to climate change utilizing representative samples from France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK). Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we examine relations between appraisals, emotions, and behavioral intentions in the context of climate cha...

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Published in: Frontiers in Psychology
ISSN: 1664-1078
Published: Frontiers Media SA 2023
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spelling 2025-09-17T14:29:49.9063767 v2 70295 2025-09-05 Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom 54f70b9380022eddcd67398acdca418b 0000-0002-8661-8287 Kat Steentjes Kat Steentjes true false 2025-09-05 PSYS We present a study of emotional reactions to climate change utilizing representative samples from France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK). Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we examine relations between appraisals, emotions, and behavioral intentions in the context of climate change. We compare the four countries concerning emotional differences and commonalities and relate our findings to pertinent models of cultural values. Five distinct emotions were measured: worry, hope, fear, outrage, and guilt. In addition, the survey asked respondents to appraise a set of climate-related statements, such as the causality of climate change, or the efficacy of mitigation efforts. Also, a set of climate-relevant actions, such as willingness to reduce energy consumption or support for climate policies, was assessed. Findings show that appraisals of human causation and moral concern were associated with worry and outrage, and appraisals of efficacy and technological solutions were associated with hope. Worry and outrage are associated with intentions to reduce one’s energy consumption, whereas hope and guilt are related to support for policies such as tax and price increases. A country comparison shows that French respondents score high on outrage and worry and tend to engage in individual behaviors to mitigate climate change, whereas Norwegian respondents score high on hope and show a tendency to support policies of cost increase. Generally, worry is the most and guilt the least intense emotion. Moral concerns and perceived collective efficacy of one’s country in addressing climate change are relatively strong in France, while beliefs in human causation and in negative impacts of climate change prevail in Germany, and confidence in technological solutions are prevalent in Norway. In sum, findings reveal typical patterns of emotional responses in the four countries and confirm systematic associations between emotions and appraisals as well as between emotions and behaviors. Relating these findings to models of cultural values reveals that Norway, endorsing secular and egalitarian values, is characterized by hope and confidence in technological solutions, whereas France and Germany, emphasizing relatively more hierarchical and traditional values, are rather characterized by fear, outrage, and support for behavioral restrictions imposed by climate change policies. Journal Article Frontiers in Psychology 14 1139133 Frontiers Media SA 1664-1078 climate change, emotions, appraisal theories, risk perception, sustainability, environmental behavior, cross-national comparison 6 7 2023 2023-07-06 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139133 COLLEGE NANME Psychology School COLLEGE CODE PSYS Swansea University Another institution paid the OA fee This research was conducted as part of the “European Perceptions of Climate Change” project, which was funded by the Joint Programme Initiative on Climate Change (JPI-Climate) with associated grants from Cardiff University Sustainable Places Research Institute, School of Psychology and the Economic & Social Research Council, ESRC [grant number ES/M009505/1], France’s Agence Nationale de la Recherche [grant number ANR-14-JCLI-0003], the KLIMAFORSK programme of the Norwegian Research Council [NFR; project number 244904], and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research [grant number 01UV1403]. The project received co-funding from the cooperation agreement between Equinor (formerly Statoil) and the University of Bergen [Akademiaavtale; project number 803589]. 2025-09-17T14:29:49.9063767 2025-09-05T10:07:25.5783751 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Gisela Böhm 1 Hans-Rüdiger Pfister 2 Rouven Doran 3 Charles A. Ogunbode 4 Wouter Poortinga 5 Endre Tvinnereim 6 Kat Steentjes 0000-0002-8661-8287 7 Claire Mays 8 Raquel Bertoldo 9 Marco Sonnberger 10 Nicholas Pidgeon 11 70295__35107__538a683e18194eda91fa842929f434a2.pdf 70295.VOR.pdf 2025-09-17T14:27:51.3399939 Output 3127098 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2023 Böhm, Pfister, Doran, Ogunbode, Poortinga, Tvinnereim, Steentjes, Mays, Bertoldo, Sonnberger and Pidgeon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
spellingShingle Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
Kat Steentjes
title_short Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
title_full Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
title_fullStr Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
title_full_unstemmed Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
title_sort Emotional reactions to climate change: a comparison across France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom
author_id_str_mv 54f70b9380022eddcd67398acdca418b
author_id_fullname_str_mv 54f70b9380022eddcd67398acdca418b_***_Kat Steentjes
author Kat Steentjes
author2 Gisela Böhm
Hans-Rüdiger Pfister
Rouven Doran
Charles A. Ogunbode
Wouter Poortinga
Endre Tvinnereim
Kat Steentjes
Claire Mays
Raquel Bertoldo
Marco Sonnberger
Nicholas Pidgeon
format Journal article
container_title Frontiers in Psychology
container_volume 14
container_start_page 1139133
publishDate 2023
institution Swansea University
issn 1664-1078
doi_str_mv 10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1139133
publisher Frontiers Media SA
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchytype
hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
active_str 0
description We present a study of emotional reactions to climate change utilizing representative samples from France, Germany, Norway, and the United Kingdom (UK). Drawing on appraisal theories of emotion, we examine relations between appraisals, emotions, and behavioral intentions in the context of climate change. We compare the four countries concerning emotional differences and commonalities and relate our findings to pertinent models of cultural values. Five distinct emotions were measured: worry, hope, fear, outrage, and guilt. In addition, the survey asked respondents to appraise a set of climate-related statements, such as the causality of climate change, or the efficacy of mitigation efforts. Also, a set of climate-relevant actions, such as willingness to reduce energy consumption or support for climate policies, was assessed. Findings show that appraisals of human causation and moral concern were associated with worry and outrage, and appraisals of efficacy and technological solutions were associated with hope. Worry and outrage are associated with intentions to reduce one’s energy consumption, whereas hope and guilt are related to support for policies such as tax and price increases. A country comparison shows that French respondents score high on outrage and worry and tend to engage in individual behaviors to mitigate climate change, whereas Norwegian respondents score high on hope and show a tendency to support policies of cost increase. Generally, worry is the most and guilt the least intense emotion. Moral concerns and perceived collective efficacy of one’s country in addressing climate change are relatively strong in France, while beliefs in human causation and in negative impacts of climate change prevail in Germany, and confidence in technological solutions are prevalent in Norway. In sum, findings reveal typical patterns of emotional responses in the four countries and confirm systematic associations between emotions and appraisals as well as between emotions and behaviors. Relating these findings to models of cultural values reveals that Norway, endorsing secular and egalitarian values, is characterized by hope and confidence in technological solutions, whereas France and Germany, emphasizing relatively more hierarchical and traditional values, are rather characterized by fear, outrage, and support for behavioral restrictions imposed by climate change policies.
published_date 2023-07-06T05:30:30Z
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score 11.089407

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