What’s going on here?
A new study published by scientific journal Nature Human Behaviour may provide clues on how to communicate climate information more effectively. The researchers discovered that presenting climate data in more extreme binary formats helps people understand the effects of the climate crisis and react more strongly.
In a large-scale cognitive experiment involving nearly 800 participants, Liu et al concluded that people have a more empathetic and concerned response to binary data. By highlighting more sudden changes, the climate crisis effects were more noticeable to participants compared to gradual changes.
What does this mean?
These findings provide valuable insights into how we might overcome public apathy toward the climate crisis. Highlighting clear, concrete shifts instead of general trends could be a valuable communication tool to increase public urgency around climate crisis impacts. Seeing more compelling climate data could help keep the climate crisis in the forefront of public minds, motivating faster and more widespread climate action.
Why should we care?
Effectively communicating the impacts of the climate crisis remains a key challenge despite events such as storms, fires and droughts intensifying across the globe. The study highlights ways to sustain public attention to help accelerate climate action and could even help influence the design and visualisation of governmental policies. For example, presenting heatwave data from a specific region leads to an increase in the perceived impact of heatwaves compared to showing the average global temperature increase.
There is a promising future for improved climate crisis communication while maintaining scientific accuracy. The findings also encourage us to think about how we personally perceive the climate data we view whether in the news, at school or at work. When was the last time you saw a piece of climate data that inspired you to make a change?
Be Curious!
- Check out an example of binary-style climate data from the Climate Stripes: https://showyourstripes.info/
- The Frog Boiling Syndrome; read more about how humanity is gradually becoming accustomed to climate change.
- From the Curious archives: explore how psychology and adapting our mindset can help us tackle climate change.
Featured image by Nick Brunner, via Unsplash.
