Policy makers are facing the challenge of developing policies to mitigate and adapt to climate change effects building on public support and engagement. A considerable body of research evidences that public support and engagement in climate change initiatives is highly influenced by risk perception, yet the specific psychosocial pathways that are implicated in such processes are not entirely clear. It is often suggested that increasing the awareness of risks is the key to promote public support and engagement. It appears that it is naturally assumed that inaccurate risk perceptions result of a lack of awareness and that, as such, more accurate risk perceptions could be promoted by awareness-raising campaigns. However the literature on risk perception evidences that the awareness of threatening situations actually leads to the development of strategies to psychologically minimize the perceived risk, as a way to cope and adapt to the threat, an effect coined as risk perception normalization. In this presentation it is provided recent evidence for this effect in climate change and illustrated how this process might occur. First, using multilevel analyses on data from 33 countries, it is evidenced that higher emissions of CO2 related to lower climate change environmental risk perception due to higher climate change awareness (Luís, Vauclair & Lima, under review). Second, it is suggested that this counterintuitive negative link between risk awareness and risk perception can be explained by the use of particular psychological coping strategies. A survey study focused on coastal risks showed that in areas of high coastal risk, risk awareness reduces coastal risk perception through its effect on reliance on protective measures to prevent risk, even if those measures were not objectively effective (Luís et al., 2015). Risk normalization plays an adaptive role in the psychological health and well-being of individuals but might also have negative effects. In concrete, it might decrease public engagement and public acceptance of climate change mitigation and adaptation policies when these are most needed, i.e., when CO2 emissions are higher, thereby likely increasing the exposure to climate change risk.
Luís, S., Vauclair, M., & Lima, M.L. (under review). Raising awareness of climate change? Cross-national evidence for the normalization of climate change environmental risk perception. Climatic Change.
Luís, S., Pinho, L., Lima, M.L., Roseta-Palma, C., Cardoso Martins, F., & Betâmio de Almeida, A. (2015). Is it all about awareness? The normalization of coastal risk. Journal of risk research. Advanced online publication. doi: 10.1080/13669877.2015.1042507
The relevance of risk perceptionTopic #7 , Citizen and stakeholder roles in risk management
