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The Francis Effect: How Pope Francis Changed the Conversation About Global Warming
... For example, we use an audience segmentation analysis called Global Warming's Six Americas that divides the US adult population into six distinct audiences (Maibach et al. 2011). Over the past decade this approach has been used to plan myriad climate communication initiatives (Roser-Renouf et al. 2015, Leiserowitz et al. 2021b, and a brief survey tool to identify the prevalence of the Six Americas in any given population has been made available for anyone who wishes to use it (Chryst et al. 2018). Similar audience segmentation research is available for Australia, India, Singapore, Brazil, and other countries (see Detenber & Rosenthal 2020). ...
... A set of simple messages about climate change that were developed by our climate communication team, and are now being used by many in the climate communication community, are shown in Figure 1. People's understanding-or acceptance-of these five key facts is strongly associated with how concerned they are about climate change, and what, if anything, they are doing in response (Roser-Renouf, et al. 2015, Leiserowitz et al. 2021a). two important qualities of effective public health information campaigns: well-designed messages and achieving a sufficient level of message reach and frequency (i.e., repetition) for the messages to have their intended effect (Hornik 2002, Abroms & Maibach 2008. ...
A science-based understanding of climate change and potential mitigation and adaptation options can provide decision makers with important guidance in making decisions about how best to respond to the many challenges inherent in climate change. In this review we provide an evidence-based heuristic for guiding efforts to share science-based information about climate change with decision makers and the public at large. Well-informed decision makers are likely to make better decisions, but for a range of reasons, their inclinations to act on their decisions are not always realized into effective actions. We therefore also provide a second evidence-based heuristic for helping people and organizations change their climate change–relevant behaviors, should they decide to. These two guiding heuristics can help scientists and others harness the power of communication and behavior science in service of enhancing society's response to climate change. ▪ Many Earth scientists seeking to contribute to the climate science translation process feel frustrated by the inadequacy of the societal response. ▪ Here we summarize the social science literature by offering two guiding principles to guide communication and behavior change efforts. ▪ To improve public understanding, we recommend simple, clear messages, repeated often, by a variety of trusted and caring messengers. ▪ To encourage uptake of useful behaviors, we recommend making the behaviors easy, fun, and popular.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Volume 51 is May 2023. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... The Pope brought to the Vatican a Latin American perspective regarding the role of religion, turning readers' attention to 'the cry of Earth and the cry of the poor' (Pope 2015, §49.), an allusion to the Brazilian theologian, Leonardo Boff (2004). The engagement of the Pope in ecological debates raised hopes that Catholics would be more proactive in these areas and put his agenda into practice (Maibach 2015, Wilkins 2020. Soon, the Global Catholic Climate Movement 1 was set up and many Catholic communities worldwide undertook pro-nature initiatives. ...
The increasing participation of faith leaders in environmental debates has led tovthe renewed interest in the ‘greening of religions’. This paper examines the frames employed by religious actors to encourage environmental action, with a focus on the eco-movement within the Roman Catholic Church in Poland. Its
narratives are connected to the goals of promoting ‘ecological conversion’ and encouraging change at the community level. We demonstrate how pro-environmental religious actors navigate between anti-ecological voices within the Church and left-wing activism, applying the following frames: 1) presenting
ecological lifestyle as a religious obligation, 2) promoting the idea of ‘integral ecology,’ rooted in a Christian anthropology, 3) reinterpreting Catholicism by showing green practices as a legitimized element of the Church’s tradition. We argue that these activities constitute a form of a counterculture that develops a values-based approach to environmentalism, aiming to transform the culture of the Catholic church and society.
... Effective messengers might also come from other social identities. For example, for the Christian right , effective messengers might include religious leaders such as the Pope (promoting action on climate change; Maibach, 2015) or religious medical experts (promoting vaccination; . Advocates would benefit from assessing how to build trust with target populations. ...
Managing collective action issues such as pandemics and climate change requires major social and behavioral change. Dominant approaches to addressing these issues center around information provision and financial incentives to shift behavior, yet, these approaches are rarely effective without integrating insights from psychological research on motivation. By accurately characterizing human motives, social scientists can identify when and why individuals engage, and facilitate behavior change and public engagement. Here, we use the core social motives model (BUCkET; Fiske, 2004) to sort social psychological theories into five fundamental social motives: to Belong, Understand, Control, self-Enhance, and Trust. We explain how each motive can improve or worsen collective action issues, and how this framework can be further developed towards a comprehensive social psychological perspective to collective action issues.
... In two separate studies of U.S. public opinion, scholars found a positive relationship between the Pope's global presence, his encyclical Laudato Si', and respondents' views on the environment. Respondents reported they were more likely to view the environment as a moral issue and felt an increase in public engagement and personal responsibility (Maibach et al. 2015;Schuldt et al. 2017). Maibach et al. outlined the various actions taken by the Church following the release of Laudato Si', which demonstrates how as a norm entrepreneur, the Church's structure aids in the dissemination of its spiritual message to cultivate discussion and reflection. ...
International discussions regarding the environment have too narrowly focused on contributions by secular actors. The Catholic Church, recognized for its influential role in the democratization processes of the 1990s, also has a long-standing position regarding climate change, yet remains understudied. How can the Church contribute to the international community's debates regarding the environment and climate change? Using the framework of constructivism and Jurgen Habermas' concept of institutional translation, I argue that the Church is a norm entrepreneur that promotes a foreign policy of human/integral ecology. The most recent articulation of this foreign policy is Pope Francis' encyclical Laudato Si’ , which was referenced by the Holy See at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) in 2021. The Church's participation at COP26 was the latest animation and application of the Church's foreign policy; I examine the Church's efforts to change the narrative on the environment toward a shared, global responsibility.
... Pope Francis' speeches and writings have become a research interest for many media and communication scholars. These studies have already framed Pope Francis as a 'bravura rhetor' (Oldenburg 2018;Maibach 2015) and have identified his rhetoric as inclusive and anti-elitist (Gage 2017). Studies ascertain that the Pope is a theological ethicist (Regan 2019), who pushes his populist leadership through massive mediatisation of itineraries, increased intervention on social mediathereby cultivating a 'digital leadership', and revolutionary apostolic exhortations (Narbona 2016;Guzik 2018;McCormick 2021). ...
Pope Francis has gained a title as ‘the Pope of Surprises’ for his unprecedented and unconventional papal narratives, personal viewpoints, and equally electrifying mediatised public appearances. One of these surprises was his videotaped appearance on TED. By adopting postsecularism as a conceptual framework, this study examines the dominant discursive features in Pope Francis’ TED Talks. Three main types of narrative features were found: emphasis on the postsecular solidarity between the religious and the secular, negotiating religious doctrinal engagement in public spheres, and finally, de-emphasising the papal magisterial authority. While the surface language of the Pope’s TED Talks operates in a postsecular inclusive discursive spirit, its ontological roots are nevertheless cemented in a Catholic epistemology and a faith-motivated claim for moral theology. The similarities between Christian sermons and TED’s communicative norms and practices make the Pope’s new rhetoric possible without excessive attenuation of the Catholic vocabulary.
... Karol Wojtyła's reflections, expressing full approval of the media, were filled with wise, critical attitude, including his meetings with journalists, speeches to various media groups and associations. His television activity was also continued by Benedict XVI (Laskowska and Marcyński 2016) and by Pope Francis (Maibach 2015;Narbona 2016;Slatinek 2017). ...
In recent years, the Catholic Church has been forced to change its attitude towards social communication and mass media. It has had to face not only religious but image challenges. Worldview matters, contemporary problems regarding the institution of marriage or pedophilia in the Church are constantly being debated in mass media, thus creating dangers in terms of critical public reception. This situation has also been occurring in Poland in recent years. The observed progress regarding opening the Church to media relations and the use of rich instruments of social communication have their reasons rooted not only in the history of the social and political events of the past several decades but also in the changes in the sphere of mass media and social communication. This article is an attempt to generate a peculiar typology of determinants regarding the development of social communication within the institutional church in Poland. Within our framework of methodological conditions, a literature query with available statistical analyses and observations of current events was applied. Our conclusions show the current attitude of the Catholic Church in Poland regarding issues related to the marketization of faith and the medialization of religion.
... For example, research has found that people are more likely to support pro-climate policies like a carbon tax when conveyed by an ingroup partisan source (Fielding et al., 2020), and that Republicans and Democrats consider the issue to be more serious when it is termed "climate change" and "global warming", respectively (Villar & Krosnick, 2011). Climate messaging from prominent religious leaders like Pope Francis can encourage people to view climate change as a moral issue (Maibach, 2015;Schuldt et al., 2017), and leaders of youth movements may promote a sense of collective efficacy and interest in collective action (Sabherwal et al., 2021). Individual factors such as perceived risk, personal efficacy and environmental values also determine citizens' decisions to engage in collective climate action (Lubell et al., 2007). ...
Media coverage of climate protests within the United States and internationally has shown growing public frustration about governmental responses to climate change. But what are the effects of conveying that people are angry? And how do they contrast with more traditional norm messages about climate policy support? Here, we investigate whether social norm messaging about collective anger can impact perceptions of consensus and public support for climate mitigation. In a pilot study and two survey experiments (total N=1529), we find that relative to control messages, normative appeals that convey growing public anger about U.S. inaction on climate change (i.e., dynamic anger consensus messaging) can enhance Americans’ consensus estimates of other Americans’ climate-related beliefs and support for mitigation policy, and expectations for future climate-mitigating collective action. Moreover, exposure to a dynamic anger consensus message led to similar estimates of Americans’ policy support and belief in climate change as messages that explicitly conveyed public support for climate mitigation (Study 1) or consensus belief in anthropogenic climate change (Study 2). When tailored for a cross-partisan audience, anger consensus messaging was also effective in bolstering personal support for climate mitigation (Study 2). Notably, similar effects were observed across partisan groups. These findings suggest that, by signaling shared motivational states, emotion consensus appeals can enhance expectations for social change, with the potential to mobilize bipartisan support for climate mitigation.
... Besides, Pope Francis, the current head of the Catholic Church, is himself a Jesuit. He is known for his Church reforms that are suited to current realities (Flamini, 2013;Maibach, 2015;Scannone, 2016) especially Catholics. Like all believers, the Catholics willingly do what the supreme religious authority recommends. ...
This article investigated how metaphors for COVID-19 were framed in a Catholic-based journal Thinking Faith. Data, consisting of 107 metaphors, were collected from the online journal and were analyzed within the Jesuit perspectives. Results showed that out of the 107 occurrences of metaphoric expressions for the pandemic, the source domains tend to have reflective and empowering aspects. The 12 main source domains of COVID-19 were war, drama, tools, natural forces, journey, manageable item, teacher, other living beings, darkness, pain, threat, and signs of the times. The coverage of Thinking Faith aimed to show the life-changing wisdom of the Gospel, Catholic Social Teaching, and Papal messages. Positive or neutral word choices of metaphors like teacher, drama, journey, manageable items, natural forces, and signs of the times managed to spark hopefulness for the journal readership. Meanwhile, the violence-related metaphors war, pain, and threat may appear to be discouraging. Overall, the metaphors used in the Jesuit online journal were contextually heartening.
... There are many studies about science literacy, and how the knowledge level of a population affects the public opinion about scientific projects or findings. Facts like religious and political identities determine attitudes of individuals, such as in the case of global warming issue (McCright and Dunlap, 2011;Maibach, 2015), however, it has been seen that a higher education level and scientific knowledge may suppose a higher support for scientific research motivated by personal nonscientific concerns (Drummond and Fischhoff, 2017). This is why it is necessary to identify and support the best sources of information that can improve the level of knowledge among different groups that compose society. ...
Recreational ports are known to be sources of pollution to the coastal marine environment due to the pouring of pollutants or the transfer of invasive species to neighboring areas. Nonetheless, the responsibility of protecting the marine environment does not lie solely on the users of the ports, but also affects the rest of citizens. Thus, an effective communication is necessary between scientists and citizens to avoid the lack of knowledge and boost cooperation against these environmental problems. In this study, (focused on the marina of Gijon, Northwestern Spain) citizens set education and social media as the main sources of information, rarely considering science outreach. Also, their environmental knowledge showed to be based on a visual perception, rather than on a cognitive one, as marine litter was considered a great environmental problem, while invasive species and biofouling went unnoticed, remarking the lack of an effective communication from scientific sources.
... They suggest changing economic conditions during that period may be related to the shift, which highlights the need, not only to set a baseline segmentation analysis, but also to update the analysis periodically. More recently, the segments have shown relative stability (Leiserowitz, Maibach, Roser-Renouf, Feinberg, & Rosenthal, 2015), but special events like Pope Francis's visit to the United States have been shown to influence public opinion and communication patterns related to climate change (Maibach, 2015). The current study seeks to set the baseline in Singapore and lay the groundwork for future segmentation analyses. ...
A nationally representative telephone survey (n = 1,006) was conducted to understand how different groups of Singaporeans regard the issue of climate change and their inclination toward action in dealing with it. We measured attitudes, knowledge, and perceptions of the problem of climate change and the role of various stakeholders in addressing it. The data were subjected to a latent class analysis to produce three distinctive segments of the population: the concerned, the disengaged, and the passive. These segments stand in contrast to those discovered in the United States, Australia, Germany, and India and suggest different strategies for public engagement campaigns. The results also clarify the need to account for national idiosyncrasies when promoting adaptation to, or mitigation of, climate change in different parts of the world.
... Pointedly, the Pope rejects the notion, advanced by White (1967), that Judaeo-Christian thinking has encouraged exploitation of nature, instead referring to a mutual responsibility between people and nature. Perhaps indicative of the encyclical's faith-related impact, there is evidence of an increase in climate concern amongst Americans and an even greater increase amongst American Catholics (Maibach et al. 2015). If such attitudinal changes are sustained over time and replicated, perhaps this document, by reinforcing the global scientific consensus on climate change, can help mollify the doubts of some who deny climate science, or convince others who see its denial as part of a political ideology. ...
The ecological crisis is a major challenge facing humanity. For centuries, our conviction that nature’s strength is insurmountable hindered the development of the idea that human actions may pose a threat to nature. As a result of the industrial revolution, people experienced the effects of the environmental crisis on a global scale. This has led to an increased sense of awareness that the Earth is fragile, vulnerable, and defenseless in the face of the actions of man who uses the advances of science and technology against nature. Moreover, the aftermath of environmental devastation may prove irreversible, threatening the survival of human beings or even life itself on our planet. Thus, raising environmental awareness has become a crucial element in overcoming the ecological crisis. Only people who are aware of existing threats and the consequences of their actions can abandon egoistic, destructive attitudes toward nature and build sustainable attitudes toward the natural environment. Many studies highlight the awakening of environmental consciousness. Various publications, expert reports, international organizations’ initiatives, and the actions of politicians are among the crucial factors that can act as a catalyst for stirring this consciousness. Yet the role of religion in triggering and deepening environmental awareness is rarely discussed. The aim of this paper, therefore, is to show the contribution of religion in this regard, with a particular focus on the role of Christianity. Christianity’s contribution has been confirmed by official statements from Christian leaders on ecological issues as well as publications from the beginning of the 20th century that addressed the ecological crisis from the Christian perspective. The author hopes that further studies will show the contribution of other religions thereby complementing our knowledge on the role religion plays in overcoming the environmental crisis.
Pope Francis' visit to Indonesia was crucial in strengthening Indonesia-Vatican diplomatic relations and religious harmony. This study examines the impact of the visit on pluralism and interfaith dialogue, particularly between Muslim and Catholic communities. Through an inter theological approach, this study explores theological messages related to love and human dignity and their relevance in strengthening interfaith relations. The results of the study are expected to contribute to encouraging closer and more harmonious cooperation in Indonesia. This research uses a qualitative approach with a literature review method. Data collection techniques were used to identify and collect relevant literature sources, including journal articles, books, and reports. The data analysis technique was conducted by exploring Indonesia's social and cultural context to understand the dynamics that occur. Pope Francis affirmed the importance of interfaith dialogue, especially between Catholics and Muslims, to strengthen religious harmony. By promoting love and respect for human dignity, the Pope encourages cooperation in facing social challenges such as poverty and radicalism. The dialogue should go beyond tolerance, creating closer and more peaceful relationships. This initiative is expected to strengthen interfaith brotherhood and encourage a more harmonious and inclusive life amid Indonesia's religious diversity.
This paper explores the transformative potential of religious prophetic communication in advancing an ecological civilization. Drawing upon diverse religious traditions-Christianity, Islam, Buddhism, and Confucianism-it argues that religious teachings offer profound insights and ethical frameworks essential for addressing contemporary ecological challenges. A key aspect of ecological civilization is the presence of a pervasive ecological ethos. The paper contends that religious prophetic communication plays a crucial role in cultivating such an ethos by promoting a heightened ecological conscience and consciousness among individuals and communities. Through prophetic communication, faith actors and communicators articulate moral imperatives rooted in religious principles contextualized to the present ecological situation. The paper delineates five components that make up religious prophetic communication: (1) Communicating from the position of faith; (2) Communicating in a contextually relevant manner ; (3) Communicating to energize; (4) Communicating to criticize; and (5) Communicating beyond words. Applied to the ecological context, religious prophetic communication aims to affirm, stimulate imagination, clarify misunderstandings, inspire action, and confront unjust realities. By carrying out its prophetic role, religious communicators can help bring about an ecological ethos and promote the realization of ecological civilization.
The study of religion and international relations has achieved renewed attention in the last two decades. This study investigates a specific aspect of this field: religious soft power. It focuses on individuals who were affected by religious soft power and develop a typology of courses of action these individuals can take vis-à-vis their home state. I argue that individuals can take three different types of actions: disruptive, reformative, and transnational. Using the cases of the Catholic Church and its followers, ISIS and Sunni believers, and the relations between Israel and the Evangelicals, I assess how these alternative actions are being manifested by different groups of individuals. Lastly, I offer an answer to the question of when individuals would use disruptive action and when will they use reformative one.
Religious organizations have become crucial actors in international development. However, scholarly discussions have largely ignored the dynamics that shape their impact on the ground. This article examines these dynamics by assessing three claims about the specific developmental assets of religious organizations: (a) their credibility in the eyes of their beneficiaries; (b) their control over far-flung social networks; and (c) the idea that religious organizations pursue alternative visions of development. Drawing on existing research, we study these claims in two development sectors: healthcare and environmental sustainability. The results complicate linear narratives of the positive impact of religions on development. Dynamics internal to the religious field sometimes lead to practices that run counter to the Sustainable Development Goals, while institutional pressures in the field of international development push religious organizations to become more similar to their secular counterparts. We suggest the need for alternative frameworks that go beyond prevailing secularization and de-secularization narratives to pay attention to the institutional field dynamics that shape religious development initiatives.
The livestock sector accounts for 14.5% of global greenhouse emissions. Using an online survey experiment (n = 1200) in Italy, we examine respondents’ willingness to support a public petition for a meat tax sponsored by a nongovernmental organization (NGO) after priming them with information on the environmental impact of meat and an embedded moral message. Aiming to test whether institutional authority enhances the appeal of the moral message, we include Pope Francis (a religious authority) and a
Professor of Philosophy (a secular authority) as the treatment frames along with a no-messenger (control) frame. Overall, support for meat tax is not significant in any of the treatment frames. However, highly religious individuals (those that practice and intensely believe in religion) across denominations and frames are more supportive of the meat tax. Moreover, we also find that there is a slight backlash among highly religious individuals when they receive the message with the Pope as messenger.
Incorporating one’s preexisting ethical values into targeted messages has the capacity to increase message persuasiveness. The following study explores this idea by appealing to the ethical frameworks of deontology, utilitarianism and virtue ethics in ethical climate messaging in order to determine which appeal is seen as the most persuasive among the religious demographic. Current literature demonstrates the relationship between religious individuals and their preference for assessing ethical situations deontologically. A nationally representative survey (n = 1,200) was administered. Data reveals that religious respondents are more likely to find a deontological appeal more persuasive than a utilitarian appeal (p ≤ 0.001) when used as the ethical reasoning to reduce the effects of climate change. Implications and future directions are discussed.
Since Lynn White’s 1967 discussion of Christianity and environmentalism, numerous quantitative sociological studies have attempted to assess whether White’s historical claim is born out in Christians’ current perspectives. These studies do so in large part by assessing Christians’ dominion and stewardship tendencies, about which they make two assumptions: (1) dominion ideology is inherently anti-environmental and (2) dominion and stewardship ideologies are opposed.
Many Christians reject these assumptions, a fact we demonstrate by surveying Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox, and North American Evangelical sources. Each of these discourses, in clear contradistinction to the quantitative sociological literature, portray dominion as leading to self-sacrificial stewardship of creation, all of which is considered intrinsically valuable.
Taking a 2015 study of Christians in Nigeria as a case-study, we demonstrate that this conflict between a) the perspectives assumed in the quantitative literature and b) the perspectives held by many Christians leads to a forced and distortive portrayal of these Christians’ dominion and stewardship perspectives. Finally, we propose ways of measuring dominion and stewardship perspectives that, while not devoid of assumptions, are flexible enough for Christians to register a variety of competing understandings of these concepts.
As encíclicas papais são documentos que exercem influência na comunidade internacional, pois extrapolam o debate que a Igreja Católica promove internamente a respeito de questões de fé. Um exemplo é a encíclica Laudato Si’ [Louvado sejas, em português] (2015), a chamada Carta Verde, a qual versa sobre meio ambiente e desenvolvimento sustentável, tema que integra a agenda política, econômica e social do mundo contemporâneo. Neste contexto, o presente trabalho analisa a relação entre os princípios do Direito Ambiental e as orientações doutrinárias de Laudato Si’. Os dados são apresentados e discutidos através da técnica de análise de conteúdo, a qual relaciona as características de um texto à fonte produtora da mensagem. Os resultados da pesquisa apontam as contribuições da encíclica para a promoção de um modelo de desenvolvimento comprometido com o meio ambiente e a qualidade de vida.
Scholarship has suggested a “greening” of religions, supposing that faith communities increasingly become environmentally friendly and use their potentials to address environmental challenges. This contribution points to the problems of the supposed “greening” by indicating the ongoing disagreements in many religious traditions over environmental engagement. The disagreements show that religious environmentalism is an embattled terrain that involves actors with different interests, backgrounds, and understandings of their traditions. The authors illustrate that tensions are an inherent part of religious environmentalism, becoming manifest in different views and theologies, ambivalences, misunderstandings, and sometimes mistrust. They distinguish between four types of tensions: (1) intradenominational tensions, (2) interdenominational tensions, (3) interreligious tensions, and (4) religious-societal tensions. By drawing attention to the tensions of religious environmentalism, this contribution sheds light on the struggles and limitations that religious environmentalists face in their ambitions to address climate change and other environmental challenges.
Climate compatibility is a cornerstone in the ecological transformation of modern society. In order to achieve sustainable development in all areas of society, numerous social actors must participate. This article examines the potential for the Catholic Church in German-speaking countries to contribute to such change. To this end, in contrast to most current studies, the Church is conceptualized as a multi-level actor instead of focusing only on the top of the hierarchy. Case studies are used to explore how various Church actors in different fields of social action evoke ecological awareness among members and non-members alike or participate in changing social structures.
Despite scientific consensus and educational efforts, approximately 25% of Americans remain unconvinced of anthropogenic climate change (ACC), and significant misconceptions remain. Many studies have assessed adults’ views, but it is important to also understand the perceptions of younger individuals who will deal with the future impacts of ACC. In this study, we aimed to determine first-semester college students’ attitudes toward and knowledge of ACC, which factors are associated with these measures, and whether knowledge scores differ among audience segments. We issued surveys at 19 American universities and received 2355 responses. The surveys contained sections assessing attitudes, knowledge, and demographics. We analyzed the attitudes and knowledge in ordinal and beta regressions. Most (73.6%) of the students were very concerned about ACC, and their average knowledge scores were high (0.89, standard error = 0.003). Attitude and knowledge were associated with a combination of personal and environmental factors. The concerned students had higher scores, suggesting education may be an important mitigation tool.
The 2015 release of Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment—Laudato Si’—was met with widespread praise by many who hoped this document would spur Catholics around the world to join movements struggling against climate change. Frequently, these hopes were accompanied by expectations that leaders in the Catholic Church would begin greening their churches and help integrate their parishioners into broader environmental movements. However, while there are strong theoretical rationales supporting Catholic environmental action, few studies have examined what—if anything—is actually happening. This paper responds to this gap by assessing how Catholic clergy in one U.S. diocese are engaging environmental concerns. Drawing upon 31 interviews with priests and deacons across the Diocese of Syracuse, N.Y., this study finds that few clergy are substantively engaging environmental issues. In addition, this paper identifies and discusses several personal and systemic barriers hampering Catholic clerical efforts to further green their churches.
Climate change is a divisive issue in the United States, and most research has focused on partisan differences, thereby leaving the impact of social identities on climate change attitudes underexplored. However, research has shown that the strength of varying and overlapping identities is key to understanding political attitudes. In this paper, we introduce Millennial Generation/Generation Z ("MillZ") as a meaningful social identity that influences political attitudes. Moreover, we contend that Latino* MillZ is an identity that has explanatory value for understanding climate change beliefs. While Latino and Millennial/Generation Z identities are not perfectly aligned, members of the Millennial Generation and Generation Z include a relatively high proportion of Latinos. Furthermore, since Latinos are disproportionately affected by climate change (i.e. the "climate gap") the MillZ identity should generate increased concern for the environment. We utilize an original national survey to explore the interplay of Latino and MillZ identities on attitudes about climate change. Results show that Latino and MillZ identities are both associated with heightened climate change concern and that strong attachment to one identity is sufficient to induce concern when the other is weak. These findings point to the importance of exploring multiple identities and offer evidence that social identities are activated in different ways to influence climate change attitudes.
Based upon the biblical mandate to care responsibly for creation, Christian educators and church pastors are in a unique position to influence their respective communities by developing and teaching values and practices that promote creation care. This article establishes the needed foundation for building ethical responsibility by addressing five primary areas that serve to advance the protection and preservation of the earth.
Climate change has become a politically polarized issue within the past 30 years, as interest groups and certain political leaders sought to dispute the growing scientific consensus about its causes and impacts. This chapter synthesizes a large body of survey, experimental and methodological literature that places the empirical study of South Florida in context. Past survey research has shown conclusively that party identification and ideology are the strongest predictors of climate change beliefs of Americans. Other predictors that are less consistent include demographic characteristics, cultural worldviews and personal experience. Survey and laboratory research has been directed at understanding the processes involved in accepting or denying messages about climate change. Among the findings are that strategically framed messages can shift opinion, that a belief in scientific consensus about climate change may increase acceptance of its reality, that prior beliefs, group identities and cultural worldviews moderate the acceptance of climate change information through motivated reasoning, and that best practices involve describing climate change as a personal risk, using social group norms to convince skeptics, and emphasizing social consensus on the issue. Prior research suggests that a message about environmental risk that is local and specific will be relatively more effective, particularly when the immediate threat is already visible.
This article aims to build awareness of the growing global crisis in social, economic and environmental terms from different disciplinary approaches. The authors respond to the message of Pope Francis presented in his Encyclical Letter published in 2015. The article provides a short current overview of the discourse and presents three hypotheses anchored in the disciplines of Psychology, Health and Theology for a deeper discussion of Pope Francis’s viewpoints on the challenges to humankind and how to address them. It thereby contributes to the discourse on health and religion with regard to the Pope’s message to the world community. The article leads to an interdisciplinary conclusion and directions for future research and practice.
Cet article s’intéresse au poids de la variable religieuse dans l’identité des partis républicains et démocrates depuis les années 1990 puis dans la politique publique qu’ils ont générée au gré du jeu politique au Congrès, entre Congrès et Président et que la Cour Suprême a approuvée ou invalidée. Nous verrons se dessiner clairement deux usages de la référence religieuse et deux types de politiques publiques presque aux antipodes. Nous nous interrogerons enfin sur l’avenir de cette opposition solidement construite, parce que sa logique risque bientôt de s’enrayer face à une réalité religieuse et démographique en pleine transformation.
The Center for Climate Change Communication at George Mason University was established to develop and apply social science insights to help society make informed decisions that will stabilize the earth’s life-sustaining climate, and prevent further harm from climate change. In this chapter, we describe our program of research and outreach efforts, focusing on the cognitive and affective drivers of climate change issue engagement, the roles of mediated and interpersonal communication in shaping climate change beliefs, attitudes, and actions, and the applications of audience segmentation in developing outreach programs. We also describe the theoretical foundations of our work, and our three major outreach programs: Climate Matters, an innovative collaboration of climate scientists, meteorologists, and social scientists to foster climate change communication among television weathercasters; the Medical Society Consortium on Climate & Health, an outgrowth of our research that identified a widespread lack of understanding that climate change affects human health; and RepublicEn, an initiative led by conservatives to catalyze a new narrative on climate change among conservatives, based in free-market thinking.
Many theologians and faith leaders seek to make a strong link between concerns for the environment and their faith. By making a strong connection between theology and faith on one hand and the environment and sustainability on the other hand they attempt to show that issues like climate change, air pollution or bio-diversity loss are not merely scientific or political issues but also spiritual issues. For them environmental problems are important and urgent issues which the church cannot ignore. However, many believers do not necessarily share this view and for many there is often little relationship between their faith and the environment. Drawing on findings from focus group interviews with churches and research done with a Christian environmental organisation this paper will identify three major problems that obstruct environmental issues from becoming part of church life. The identified problems are: indifference and polarisation towards environmental issues among churchgoers, a lack of engagement with the environment in local churches and the decline of institutionalised Christianity. The paper will also make a brief attempt to propose a solution which might help environmental issues to gain a more central place in church life. The paper will argue that churchgoers need to be engaged by people who they personally know and trust, rather than distant theologians and faith leaders. Clergy and also churchgoers, who are concerned about the environment, need to engage openly, sincerely and personally with their fellow churchgoers within the context of their local church. Otherwise environmental issues are likely to remain an elitist project of a few high ranking faith leaders and environmental activists.
Climate change is a global problem that is caused by humans and must be solved by humans, and while differences exist, many theories and research on prejudice and discrimination have direct connections to the psychological processes involved in climate change. Climate change is not only a geophysical issue, but an intergroup issue with justice implications. It impacts people who are most vulnerable to environmental degradation as well as social injustices. Arguably it not only violates human rights but also the rights of animals and nature. Thus, the study of group processes and intergroup relations is critical to understanding the myriad of barriers to addressing this large-scale problem. We explore influences on cognitive steps in perceiving climate change as a justice issue, using social psychology to understand minimization of harms and responsibilities for addressing climate change, and draw from the prejudice and discrimination literature to find ways of moving forward.
Extending theory and research on gender roles and masculinity, this work predicts and finds that common ways of talking about climate change are gendered. Climate change policy arguments that focus on science and business are attributed to men more than to women. By contrast, policy arguments that focus on ethics and environmental justice are attributed to women more than men (Study 1). Men show gender matching tendencies, being more likely to select (Study 2) and positively evaluate (Study 3) arguments related to science and business than ethics and environmental justice. Men also tend to attribute negative feminine traits to other men who use ethics and environmental justice arguments, which mediates the relation between type of argument and men’s evaluation of the argument (Study 3). The gendered nature of public discourse about climate change and the need to represent ethical and environmental justice topics in this discourse are discussed.
Significance
Public opinion toward some science and technology issues is polarized along religious and political lines. We investigate whether people with more education and greater science knowledge tend to express beliefs that are more (or less) polarized. Using data from the nationally representative General Social Survey, we find that more knowledgeable individuals are more likely to express beliefs consistent with their religious or political identities for issues that have become polarized along those lines (e.g., stem cell research, human evolution), but not for issues that are controversial on other grounds (e.g., genetically modified foods). These patterns suggest that scientific knowledge may facilitate defending positions motivated by nonscientific concerns.
In his recent encyclical letter Laudato Si’: On Care for Our Common Home, Pope Francis issued a moral appeal to the global community for swift action on climate change. However, social science research suggests a complex relationship between religious concepts and environmental attitudes, raising the question of what influence the pope’s position may have on public opinion regarding this polarizing issue. In a national probability survey experiment of U.S. adults (n = 1212), we find that brief exposure to Pope Francis influenced the climate-related beliefs of broad segments of the public: it increased perceptions of climate change as a moral issue for the overall sample (and among Republicans in particular) and increased felt personal responsibility for contributing to climate change and its mitigation (among Democrats). Moreover, prior awareness of the pope’s views on climate change mattered, such that those who indicated greater awareness of the pope’s position showed stronger treatment effects, consistent with a priming account of these effects. Results complement recent correlational findings and offer further evidence of the Vatican’s influence on climate change public opinion.
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