Gisela Böhm and Charles Ogunbode: Interrogating the link between extreme weather experience and climate change engagement

Gisela Böhm and Charles Ogunbode from Department of Psychosocial Science. 

Abstract:
Extreme weather events are projected to increase in frequency and intensity across the globe due to climate change. Scholars have argued that highlighting the links between local weather events and climate change can help promote climate change engagement among the public. Indeed, a growing number of studies suggest that climate change risk perception and policy support are stronger among people who have previously experienced extreme weather impacts and people who believe they have personally experienced climate change. However, the existing literature has been dogged by a tendency to conflate extreme weather experience with perceived experience with climate change; leading to inconsistent findings regarding the role of extreme weather events in shaping public responses to climate change.

In this talk, we present a series of studies investigating the link between flooding experiences and climate change. We examined how political loyalties moderate the link between flooding experience and climate change engagement, the intervening role of subjective attribution in the link between flooding experience, climate change threat perception and mitigation intentions, as well as the potential attenuating influence of increased individual capacity to cope with extreme weather on motivation to mitigate climate change. The talk will conclude with a discussion of implications for attempts to harness extreme weather experiences in climate change communication.

Lunch is served at first come, first served basis.