Perceived economic inequality and national wealth drive public support for systemic climate policies

Abstract : Climate change cannot be successfully mitigated solely through individual-level actions. Systemic change is urgently needed. In this talk, I will explore factors that shift people’s focus from individual-level behaviour change policies to systemic climate policies. Specifically, we investigated whether perceived national wealth and perceived inequality affect people’s support for systemic climate policies. We found that perceived national wealth positively predicts people’s support for systemic (vs. individual-level behaviour) change policies through a perceived moral obligation of one’s country to contribute to the solution of global issues. Furthermore, we found that greater perceived inequality increases people’s support for systemic (vs. individual-level behaviour) change policies through a greater desire for drastic changes.

Biography : Chris is a postdoctoral research fellow at the School of Psychology, University of Queensland. Chris’s research is at the intersection of social, environmental, and moral psychology. Chris studies the factors influencing people’s support for systemic climate change policies, public attitudes towards biodiversity, as well as the function of aesthetic judgments and their role in morality.