Working Papers

FEP

N5 - September 2015

English edition November 2015

#Climate
#COP21
#Environment
#Perception
#ClimateAction

ANNAMARIA LAMMEL
Senior lecturer and accredited research
director in cross-cultural psychology
(University of Paris 8) and researcher
at the Paragraphe Laboratory. Annamaria Lammel is an anthropologist and
holds a doctorate in cognitive psychology. She is one of the leading authors of
the fifth IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change) report.

Climate change :
from perception to action

Annamaria Lammel

s it still possible to deny climate change? This is a phenomenon that has mobilized the worlds most important institutions, decision-makers, scientists, industrialists and bankers,
entire societies as well as individuals. Its man-made origins are
more and more evident each day, yet people remain disconnected from such a perception, both individually and as groups.
It is therefore unproductive to think that we can inspire people
to take action against climate change when their representation
of the phenomenon does not entail a full and proper perception
of its risks and dangers.
This paper addresses this concern and proposes to show how the
study of human perceptions and representations can provide the
key to a better understanding of climate-related problems.
To do so, we will explain the need (I) to overcome the obstacles
to understanding this complex phenomenon; (II) to encourage
a fuller awareness of climate risk; (III) and finally, to develop
an ethic that encourages people to take action against climate
change.

This paper makes use of knowledge gathered from the fields of

cognitive science and anthropology to provide a fresh look at
representations of climate change. In other words, this paper
will look at both the processes by which information is processed
by individuals, and the cultural and environmental contexts
within which those individuals are embedded. That will lead to
the p
resentation of the findings of our own researchers together
with a number of studies that have examined individuals and
groups specific experience of climate change, climate risks,
their perception of uncertainty, the importance of the local environment contributing to thinking patterns, and the building of
environmental values and concerns.

Note n5 - September 2015

The ACOCLI
research project
This paper is partly based on
research conducted as part of
the ACOCLI project (the name
ACOCLI comes from the French
for Cognitive Adaptation to
Climate Change), financed by
the French National Research
Agency and coordinated by
Annamaria Lammel and Frank
Jamet within the Paragraphe
Laboratory at the University of
Paris 8.

Climate change : from perception to action

To understand the importance of studying cognition and the cultural context in relation to individuals capacity to respond to climate
change, the individual and his or her specific characteristics must
be placed at the centre of a theoretical model of dynamic adaptation to change. The diagram below clearly shows the interactions
between the different components, as environment , culture, and
cognition and how individuals behaviour affects the world around
them1.

The general aim of the ACOCLI

project is to investigate the relationship between environment and society and more
specifically the relationship
between society and climate.

The general hypothesis is

that human cognition makes
adaptation to environmental
changes possible. However,
rapid climate change creates
cognitive conflicts which give
rise to cognitive difficulties
and increase vulnerability.

This project includes in particular the study of various aspects of cognition in relation
to climate change (mental representation, categorisation,
comprehension, temporal and
spatial cognition, and problem
solving) in populations with
different degrees of exposure
to climate change.
More than 800 individual interviews were conducted as
part of the project in both metropolitan France (in Paris,
the Alps and Ile de R) and
overseas (French Guiana and
New Caledonia). The objective
was to identify the cognitive
models underlying climate
change.

CONCEPTS USED
Cognition
The set of mental processes that enable and structure knowledge.
Many functions are involved in the cognitive process, such as memory, language, perception and learning. While classical psychology at one time contrasted cognition and emotion, modern cognitive
science generally recognises the important role played by emotion
in the cognitive process.
Cognitive vulnerability (ACOCLI definition)
Il sagit dun tat cognitif dans lequel le sujet ne dispose ni des informations / connaissances suffisantes, ni des modes de traitement
de linformation ncessaires la comprhension optimale des phnomnes auxquels il est confront.

I. Overcoming obstacles to knowledge of a complex

phenomenon
A. Climate change a complex phenomenon requiring
complex cognition
In contrast to basic cognitive processes (data exploration, attention, visual structuring, etc.), complex cognitive processes2 need
to apply a set of higher order processes permitting reasoning or
problem solving .

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Climate change : from perception to action

1. Voir: - Lammel, A., Dugas, E. Guillen

Gutierrez, E. (2012). Lapport de la psychologie cognitive ltude de ladaptation
aux changements climatiques: la notion de
vulnrabilit cognitive. VertigO, 12.1.
- Lammel, A., Dugas, E., & Guillen, C. (2011).
Traditional way of thinking and prediction of climate change in New Caledonia
(France). Indian Journal of Traditional
Knowledge, 10(1), 13-20.
- Lammel, A., Guillen, C., Dugas, E., & Jamet,
F. (2013). Cultural and environmental
changes: Cognitive adaptation to global
warming. in Selected papers from Steering
the cultural dynamics: 2010 Congress of the
International Association for Cross-Cultural
Psychology, Melbourne Australia, 49-58.

2. Sternberg, R. J., & Ben-Zeev, T. (2001).

Complex cognition: The psychology of human
thought. Oxford University Press.
3. - Osman, M. (2010). Controlling uncertainty: a review of human behavior in complex dynamic environments. Psychological
Bulletin, 136(1), 65.
- Knauff, M., & Wolf, A. G. (2010). Complex
cognition: the science of human reasoning,
problem-solving, and decision-making.
Cognitive processing, 11(2), 99-102.

4. - Kahneman, D. (2003). A perspective on

judgment and choice: mapping bounded rationality. American psychologist, 58(9), 697.
- Fischer, A., & Glenk, K. (2011). One model
fits all?On the moderating role of emotional engagement and confusion in the
elicitation of preferences for climate change
adaptation policies. Ecological Economics,
70(6), 1178-1188.
5. - Johnson-Laird, P.N. (2008). Mental
models and deductive reasoning. in Rips,
L. and Adler. J. (Eds.). Reasoning: Studies
in Human Inference and Its Foundations,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,
206-222.
- Evans, J. S. B. (2008). Dual-processing
accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social
cognition. Annual Review of Psychology, 59,
255-278.
6. Cf. Data from Mto France:
http://www.meteofrance.com/climat/
france

Note n5 - September 2015

These processes, such as learning, memory, perception, categorisation and emotions, are influenced by human cultures in
various ways. To adapt to climate and climate change, humankind
needs to gradually develop specific reasoning and problem solving capabilities to understand and respond to complex conditions3. However, rationality in terms of calculating probability
and decision-making based on mathematical rules are not intrinsic human qualities, nor do they occur naturally in larger human
organisations4. Numerous studies suggest that human cognitive
capabilities are limited5 and that the modern mind struggles to
grasp the systemic character of climate, the understanding of
which requires the processing of a large number of interactions
between variables, and positive or negative feedback loops (i.e.
a reaction to an initial action that either amplifies or reduce its
effects), all in a state of uncertainty.
It is therefore necessary to make use of highly complex cognitive
processes to understand and mentally represent climate change.

One of the difficulties hampering better cognitive representation

of climate disruption can be shown by what might be termed psycho-physiological obstacles to the perception of global warming.
Thus, the current stated target for effectively combating the effects of global warming is to limit the average worldwide increase
in the atmospheres temperature to 2C.
But what does such a target mean to individuals, based on their
own physiological experience of climate? Some individuals in
fact experience fairly wide diurnal temperature ranges; in Paris,
for instance, the average temperature range is 7.1C and in Marseille it is 9.4C6. For such individuals, a temperature increase of
2C consequently seems insignificant when viewed in the light of
their day-to-day experience of temperature variation.

However, this perception is very different in individuals living in

the tropics. Our research conducted in French Guiana shows that
climate change, experienced as global warming, is rather more
frightening. The temperature in French Guiana is practically the
same all year round in the whole country and with no cold season,
experience suggests that heat is a permanent and irreversible feature. The average temperature is 26.5C in the rainy season and
27.5C in the dry season, the annual average being 27C.
This experience of a stable temperature all year round consequently influence the cognitive representation of a 2C increase.
As one of our interviewees said to us: It is very, very hot here. If
its going get hotter, were going to burn, so well have to leave.
It can be seen that experience of the climate in an area alters the
picture of climate change held by individuals living there, and can
add a further obstacle to the understanding of the problem.

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Note n5 - September 2015

Climate change : from perception to action

B. Making science more accessible to enable the

understanding of uncertainty
What are the possible consequences of climate change? What course
will it take? How much will temperatures rise? How can this process
be halted? Scientists can only rarely give precise answers to such
questions, which are frequently asked of climate change specialists,
and the answers they do provide are always carefully worded. Firstly,
the course of climate change is uncertain given the dynamic (chaotic)
nature of the climate system and the unpredictability of the human
system, hence the various scenarios produced by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). Secondly, city dwellers in
Western countries build their cognitive representations of climate
change in the main from information disseminated by the media, and
possibly from popular science magazines and articles. Contradictory
information and uncertainty is in this way passed on to the general
public; how then can the public interpret the scales, data intervals
and wording by which any certainty is qualified?

7. Du, N., Budescu, D. V., Shelly, M. K., &

Omer, T. C. (2011). The appeal of vague
financial forecasts. Organizational Behavior
and Human Decision Processes, 114(2),
179-189.
8. GIEC, Volume 2 (2014). Incidence,
vulnrabilit et adaptation. Rsum
lintention des dcideurs de la Synthse du
5e rapport dvaluation du GIEC (version
franaise, 2014).

9. Smithson, M., Budescu, D. V., Broomell,

S. B., & Por, H. H. (2012). Never say not:
Impact of negative wording in probability
phrases on imprecise probability judgments. International journal of approximate
reasoning, 53(8), 1262-1270.
10. Weber, E. U., & Hilton, D. J. (1990).
Contextual effects in the interpretations of
probability words: Perceived base rate and
severity of events. Journal of Experimental
Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 16(4), 781.

11. - Harris, A. J., & Corner, A. (2011). Communicating environmental risks: Clarifying
the severity effect in interpretations of
verbal probability expressions. Journal of
Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory,
and Cognition, 37(6), 1571.
- Patt, A. G., & Schrag, D. P. (2003). Using
specific language to describe risk and probability. Climatic change, 61(1-2), 17-30.

What meaning should be ascribed to the statement: High temperatures contribute to a 0.5% to 2.3% increase in annual mortality
rates? The issues of perception and acceptance of scientific data are
crucial here. Cognitive science has, for example, highlighted a phenomenon known as the accuracy paradox. Thus, research has shown
that the general public has more confidence in data describing a
smaller interval (a temperature increase of 2 to 3C) than it does in
data describing a broader spread (a temperature increase of 1 to 5C)
even if the latter is actually more accurate scientifically7.

Similarly, in everyday speech, uncertainty is expressed in terms of

degree of certainty/uncertainty, possibility or indeed probability:
unlikely, highly probable, etc. In the fifth IPCC Synthesis Report8,
the confidence ascribed to scientific findings is partly indicated by a
qualitative level of confidence, ranging from very low to very high
or by probability, from exceptionally unlikely to virtually certain.
Research has shown that the public can misinterpret such terms,
which muddies understanding of climate change phenomena9. The
interpretation of indicators of uncertainty can be influenced, for example, by expectations10 or by the seriousness of the consequences11.
Uncertainty can in this way constitute a cognitive obstacle to the
mental representation of climate change and subsequently have
significant behavioural consequences, either encouraging or in
contrast acting as a hindrance to individual actions and changes in
behaviour.
It is vital that current work on making science accessible so as to
explain climate change, its causes and its consequences, takes these
effects into account and demonstrates science in ways that improve
understanding of scientific uncertainty.

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Climate change : from perception to action

Note n5 - September 2015

II. Fostering an accurate perception of climate risk

A. Cognitive vulnerability is perception of risks
Climate change, by virtue of its uncertainty, is one of the most significant risks posed to human societies, and to life in general. Risk is one
of the central notions in volume 2 of the latest IPCC report, Impacts,
Adaptation and Vulnerability, which includes an examination of
methods to reduce and manage impacts and risks related to climate
change, using adaptation and mitigation measures12.
The question thus arises of how we perceive and represent climate
change-related risks. A survey conducted in 2012 by Ipsos for AXA
Insurance on Individual perception of climate risks showed that
people are aware of the existence of climate change: 87% of those
questioned were worried, and 88% were optimistic and felt that climate change could be controlled if action is taken.

12. GIEC, Volume 2 (2014). Incidence,

vulnrabilit et adaptation. Rsum
lintention des dcideurs de la Synthse du
5e rapport dvaluation du GIEC (version
franaise, 2014), p.3.

13. - Sundblad, E. L., Biel, A., & Grling, T.

(2007). Cognitive and affective risk judgements related to climate change. Journal of
Environmental Psychology, 27(2), 97-106.
- Bhm, G., & Pfister, H. R. (2000). Action
tendencies and characteristics of environmental risks. Acta Psychologica, 104(3),
317-337.

14. Yale Climate Change Communication

- Bridging Science and Society, http://environment.yale.edu/climate-communication/
about/staff
15. Leiserowitz, A. (2006). Climate change
risk perception and policy preferences: The
role of affect, imagery, and values. Climatic
change, 77(1-2), 45-72.

16. Grothmann, T., & Patt, A. (2005).

Adaptive capacity and human cognition: the
process of individual adaptation to climate
change. Global Environmental Change,
15(3), 199-213.

However, psychological research shows that people underestimate

the scale of climate risk13. Anthony Leiserowitz, a recognised expert
on surveying public opinion about climate change and Director of the
Yale Program on Climate Change Communication (YPCCC)14, gives various reasons for this underestimating of risk15:
(1) Optimism reduces the feeling of personal risk;
(2) The signs of climate change are perceived as being natural;
(3) Current climate change is attributed to normal variation in
weather conditions;
(4) The risk to the planet from climate change seems low in comparison to other risks;
(5) Human beings probably do not have the cognitive (and emotional) capabilities for them to adequately assess the risks.

The adoption or otherwise of changes in behaviour to combat the

effects of climate change depends to a great extent on individuals
cognition processes. In one of the most remarkable studies of recent
years, two researchers from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact
Research showed that, when it comes to effective measures to combat climate change, the steps that people will take depend a great
deal on their perception of the level of risk16.
This first overview of the analysis of the perception/representation
of risk is well worth following up with a comparative approach that
fully incorporates the role of multisensory experiences with the environment and thinking patterns.

Thinking patterns, representation of risk and role of the

environment

Within the ACOCLI research project, our interest is in how the inhabitants of various regions with very different climates picture climate
change-related risks. Research was accordingly conducted in Paris,
the Alps (in Chamonix), New Caledonia and French Guiana. This stu-

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Climate change : from perception to action

Note n5 - September 2015

Measures to be promoted:
cross-cultural international
exchanges
The separation factor, the distance
between the inhabitants of Western
countries and poorer countries and
their inhabitants, which are the first
to experience the effects of global warming and will suffer the most serious
consequences, does nothing to encourage efforts to combat climate change.
Closer ties between the inhabitants
of different parts of the world can be
thought of as helping city dwellers to
understand the urgency regarding climate problems by those living in the
areas most exposed to risk, and as making a fuller and more systemic picture
of global warming possible. In this respect, experiments in twinning between
western cities and more exposed towns
and cities are to be encouraged and
could increase the feeling of belonging
to a world community, in the same way
that twinning arrangements between
European towns and cities fostered a
sense of European community lower
down after the Second World Wari.
Such links should also be explored more
systematically in education, in particular by pen pal schemes between
children, firstly between schools in metropolitan France and French overseas
territories or French-speaking countries, and then between French schools
and schools in non-French-speaking
countries that are most exposed to
global warming, when the language
barrier can be overcome. As the anthropologist Charlie Galibert has shown,
corresponding with foreign schoolchildren can transform a school into a global school and suggest other ideas of
spatiality and temporality beyond the
here and nowii.
New communication methods make
worthwhile, interactive connections
between children possible, without the
need for travel, and can help in understanding the problems facing the inhabitants of such areas while encouraging
systemic thinking patterns.
i. Hamman, P. (2003). Les jumelages de
communes, miroir de la construction europenne par le bas . Revue des sciences
sociales, 30, 92-98.

ii. Gallibert C., (2003). De la mise en correspondance de correspondances. Contribution une anthropologie de la communication. Communication et langages, 136(2),
106-122.

dy enabled three types of cognitive representation of climate risk to

be identified, namely simple risk, multiple risk, and complex risk. The
issue is then not to simply investigate perception of the level of risk,
but the actual nature of the risk itself.

Simple risk

The cognitive representation of risk observed in Paris residents is

mainly a simple risk representation. Such a representation is linear,
based on a cause-and-effect relationship. According to such linear
thinking and the analytical reasoning accompanying it, defining an
object in terms of its own properties, if the causes disappear, then the
risk also disappears. For example, if we find clean energy, then the
threats from climate change disappear too.
This linear picture may lead to individuals underestimating the scale
of the risk, because, as Albert Einstein rightly pointed out, information is not knowledge. This representation actually results in underestimating the global risk of climate change. The underestimating
observed is a sign of cognitive vulnerability, which can be linked to
the absence of climate experience and the difficulty of converting information about climate change into knowledge, and from there into
stable cognitive representations.

Multiple risk

The multiple risk cognitive representation was identified in the inhabitants of the Alps (Chamonix) and in certain cultural groups in
French Guiana. The multiple risk representation is not linear; it is
based on an iterative picture, where interaction between various components can alter the climate change process. Risk is not embedded
in the climate object represented by one of its components such
as the atmosphere, but is calculated using the signs of environmental change. In Chamonix for example, alterations in the conditions
of rocks and the risk of collapse or landslides are accordingly represented in comparison with other risks from climate change. From a
very young age, the cognitive representations of this regions inhabitants incorporate a notion of risk connected to the weathers unpredictability, by virtue of both the transmission of local knowledge and
their own personal experiences.

Complex risk

We were able to show the existence of a complex risk cognitive

representation in New Caledonia and in certain cultural groups in
French Guiana. This entails an iterative representation, as for multiple risk representation, but this representation is also systemic.
This representation is not confined to local aspects, but connects
both local and global spatial dimensions in the cognitive assessment
of risk. For instance, within their cognitive representation of climate

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Climate change : from perception to action

Note n5 - September 2015

risk, the Kanaks of Ouva island incorporate the systemic interaction

between the local and the global, industrial activity, consumption,
the warming of the oceans and the atmosphere, ice melting, extreme
events, changes to the biosphere and rising water levels. This systemic view of complex risk is linked to both their direct experience
of the environments fragility and a thinking pattern that is systemic.
Complex risk cognitive representation can help form a picture of
uncertainty over the course of events that includes the likelihood of
human beings becoming extinct.
The following description of our dependency on climate that we
heard one day from a Totonac Indian in the Gulf of Mexico provides a
good illustration of this systemic thinking pattern that still persists in
many traditional communities: The air is in us and we are in the air;
if we pollute the air, we pollute ourselves.

B. Strengthening the spatial representation of

climate change

17. Uzzell, D. L. (2000). The psycho-spatial

dimension of global environmental problems. Journal of environmental psychology,
20(4), 307-318.

How do members of the represent climate change-related problems

in spatial terms? Are they able to take an interest in climate problems
that do not directly affect them? The media, a multitude of environmental organisations, international negotiations and education have
strongly influenced the publics view of the worldwide seriousness of
environmental problems, often by downplaying local or even national
environmental problems. Strangely, research shows that city dwellers are more aware of distant problems than they are of local ones.
As part of the ACOCLI project, Parisians participating in the research
said that the destruction of the polar bears habitat was a sign that
climate change exists yet they did not think the same about glaciers
melting in the Alps; they believed that rising sea levels would destroy
cities such as New York within thirty years yet not that the French
coast might end up under water. How can this paradox be explained?
Research has shown that individuals tend to only take a serious interest in environmental issues when these are concrete, immediate and
local. The fact that the direct consequences of climate change have
until now tended to appear in distant lands has accordingly acted as
something of a brake on action.
Professor David Uzzell17 carried out research in Australia, Britain,
Ireland and Slovakia on the psycho-spatial dimension of global environmental problems. This research is in line with our findings: the
general public takes the problems of global warming more seriously
in proportion to their spatial distance. The influence of environmental organisations, political measures, the mass-media, and education
therefore make it possible to create a wider greener conscience and
awareness of global issues, yet at the same time, this information can
prevent the perception of local problems and the way in which global
climate change has effects at a local level.
Our research has shown that the perception of local problems related
to climate change does not rule out an abstract global representation
of these phenomena and that a systemic mindset makes it possible

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Note n5 - September 2015

Climate change : from perception to action

to connect various spatial dimensions. The indigenous populations

of New Caledonia and French Guiana connect local and global spatial dimensions together and so assess the seriousness of climate
changes consequences, both those existing and those yet to come,
using a continuous cognitive representation of space.
These findings open the way to raising the awareness of urban populations which might reduce their cognitive vulnerability (see inset
p.11).

III. Nurturing ethics that encourage action

A. Ethics and climate change

18. - Jamieson, D., (1996). Ethics and intentional climate change. Climatic Change, 33,
323-336.
- Gardiner, S.M., (2004). Ethics and global
climate change. Ethics, 114, 555-600.
Arnold, D.G., Ed. (2011). The Ethics of Global
Climate Change, Cambridge University
Press, New York, NY.
- OBrien, K., A.L.S. Clair and B. Kristoffersen, Eds., (2010) Climate change, ethics
and human security, Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge.
19. Gardiner, S.M., (2011). A Perfect Moral
Storm: The Ethical Tragedy of Climate
Change. Oxford University Press, Oxford
and New York, p.xii.
20. Ibid.

21. Schneider, S. H., & Lane, J. (2006). An

overview of dangerous climate change. In
Schellnhuber H.J, Cramer W, Nakicenovic
N, Wigley T, Yohe G, Eds. Avoiding dangerous climate change. Cambridge University
Press, 7-24.
22. Thomas, D. S., & Twyman, C. (2005).
Equity and justice in climate change
adaptation amongst natural-resource-dependent societies. Global Environmental
Change, 15(2), 115-124.

Climate change undeniably raises ethical questions, and research into

this aspect of the problem has expanded over the last twenty years18.
However, the current literature on the ethics of climate change is still
lacking a robust theory, given the controversies, uncertainties and
complexities surrounding the problem.
Climate change as it stands can be viewed as a primary ethical question and, according to Stephen Gardiner19, this ethical question needs
to take due account of a very large number of factors including intergenerational equity, questions of balance, scientific uncertainty,
economic policy decisions, international justice, etc.20
The notions of equity/inequity and responsibility are basic concepts
in the literature of this area of science. Article 3 of the United Nations
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) stipulates that
The Parties should protect the climate system for the benefit of present and future generations of humankind, on the basis of equity and
in accordance with their common but differentiated responsibilities
and respective capabilities.
The authors believe the question of equity / inequity can be included
in deliberations in various areas. Researchers Stephen Schneider and
Janica Lane from the Stanford University propose three distinct areas
of equity21:
(1) inter-country equity;
(2) intergenerational equity;
(3) inter-species equity.
In 2005, the British academics David Thomas and Chasca Twyman
defined a fourth area, sub-national or intra-country equity22. Lastly, a fifth area has been added to this list, ethics relative to energy
transition solutions (renewable energy sources) and recently geo-engineering. From all these ideas emerges the necessity of developing
equitable solutions to protect not only the most vulnerable groups of
people but also different forms of life.

Very little empirical research exists on ethical questions concerning

climate change in the general public, and this is a field that very much
warrants further study.
In this area, some research nonetheless shows that children have a
moral attitude towards the environment. Their moral conscience is

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Climate change : from perception to action

Note n5 - September 2015

in particular identified in attributing human responsibility to environmental problems23.

In addition, the growing number of non-profit organisations, NGOs,
community initiatives and social networks in favour of protecting the
environment are just some of the signs of burgeoning moral awareness in the general public as regards climate change problems.

B. Environmental concerns as a trigger to action

23. - Howe, D., Kahn, P. H., Jr., & Friedman,

B. (1996). Along the Rio Negro : Brazilian
childrens environmental views and values.
Developmental Psychology, 32, 979-987.
- Kahn, P. H., Jr. (2002). Childrens affiliations with nature: Structure, development, and the problem of environmental
generational amnesia. in P. H. Kahn, Jr. & S.
R. Kellert (Eds.), Children and nature: Psychological, sociocultural, and evolutionary
investigations, Cambridge, MA: MIT Press,
93-116.

24. Brulle, R. J., Carmichael, J., & Jenkins,

J. C. (2012). Shifting public opinion on
climate change: an empirical assessment
of factors influencing concern over climate
change in the US, 20022010. Climatic
change, 114(2), 169-188.

Climate change is one of many environmental threats of anthropogenic origin. Homo sapiens, the destroyer of its own environment is,
paradoxically, the only species able to be concerned about its environment and able to do something about it by determining the most
appropriate actions to counter the threat.
The term environmental concern appeared in social psychology in
the 1980s. Environmental concern is a form of individual assessment
that, through varying attitudes to the environment, shows in behaviour. Environmental concern is strongly linked to values, which we
will deal with next. There are substantial differences in levels of environmental concern between individuals. The factors influencing environmental concern, and therefore indirectly, awareness and taking
action, include knowledge, belief systems, individual responsibility
and assessment of the risk posed to the individuals health. An individuals level of environmental concern is first and foremost a product
of the local environment - air pollution, waste, toxic substances, etc.
Yet how can this concern be shifted from the local level to the global
level, the setting for worldwide climate change? As seen previously,
individuals in big cities are in fact in a state of cognitive vulnerability
which can form an obstacle to genuine concern in relation to the global level, and is therefore an obstacle to large scale collective efforts.
Many studies have investigated this issue. Just one example will be
mentioned here, a longitudinal study (74 surveys) conducted in the
United States between 2002 and 201024. Every three months, researchers measured the level of individuals concern over global climate
change based on the following factors:
(1) extreme weather events;
(2) public access to scientific information;
(3) media coverage (including economic aspects);
(4) involvement of politicians and/or media personalities (elites
& celebrities);
(5) discussions about climate change.
The results show that extreme weather conditions have no effect on
public opinion, and that scientific information and discussion have
very little. In contrast, what the study calls elite cues and economic
consequences presented by the media play a significant role in raising awareness taking the form of concern over climate change. This
study therefore shows the importance of the involvement of politicians, elites and climate protection groups.
Anthropology has shown that concern for the environment is found
in the majority of small societies and, when this concern disappears

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Climate change : from perception to action

from human thinking, civilisations are threatened and might even

collapse. Jared Diamonds book Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail
or Succeed25 analyses the factors that have contributed to the collapse
of various societies (for instance, those on Easter Island, Mayan society, Viking colonies in Greenland, etc.). His view is that the world
is currently facing some important decisions, and needs to learn lessons from past mistakes to ensure humankinds survival. In line with
this way of thinking, a stable level of environmental concern therefore needs to be developed within our societies.

Conclusion: On the necessity of developing

environmental values to act against climate change

One of the problems with concerns over climate change is that such
concerns are superficial and short-lived. How, then, can they be
converted into actions? A new sub-discipline, the psychology of climate change communication, attempts to find psychologically effective communication methods so as to develop lasting environmental concern, leading to environmental attitudes that are conducive
to action26. Current methods, using various conditioning techniques
(tax reductions, the eco-tax, etc.) attempt to galvanise the public
(economic stakeholders, consumers or businesses) into pro-environmental behaviour climate change therefore manifests itself in economic goods and takes a monetary value. The change in behaviour
brought about by such methods is not a principled change and thus
may well prove not to be lasting, in particular if a subsequent change
in public policy should jeopardise the financial incentives.
Furthermore, such methods confine the question to an issue of profitability without entailing any development of genuine, value-based
environmental concern.
The values influencing concern over climate change have been studied alongside other environmental values. As abstract entities and
aids to thinking and to behave, values make it possible to include the
global dimensions of environmental changes. One of the directions
taken by research in this area looks at the relationship between values, attitudes and behaviour directly related to environmental protection, because these are the actual values that guide an individuals
actions.

25. Diamond, J. (2006). Effondrement: comment les socits dcident de leur disparition
ou de leur survie. Gallimard.
26. Shome, D., & Marx, S. (2009). The
psychology of climate change communication. Center for Research on Environmental
Decisions. Columbia University.

27. Thompson, S. C. G., & Barton, M. A.

(1994). Ecocentric and anthropocentric attitudes toward the environment. Journal of
environmental Psychology, 14(2), 149-157.

In 1994, Suzanne Gagnon Thompson and Michelle Barton published a research article in which they defined two types of value-based attitudes to environmental issues, namely ecocentric and
anthropocentric27. Ecocentrism concerns individuals who value nature for its own sake and hold the view it should be protected for its
intrinsic qualities. Nature possesses a spiritual dimension for such
individuals, and has a value outside of economic considerations and
the quality of life it provides. Anthropocentrism, meanwhile, connects
environmental protection to the satisfaction of material needs, ascribing a value to nature that is essentially utilitarian. The two attitudes
agree on the necessity to preserve the environment, but for different
reasons. The first attitude will usually culminate in personal commit-

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Climate change : from perception to action

Measures to be promoted:
urban nature to develop positive
environmental attitudes
The inhabitants of large cities such
as Paris have a binary reperesentation of climate change. Cities
lack of contact with natural environments is also seen to result in
a lower propensity to developing
awareness of climate change.
Initiatives aimed at developing
the idea of urban nature are
thus to be encouraged. Over and
above the purely ecological benefits of making urban environments
greener (maintaining biodiversity,
combating pollution, managing
run-off, resilience through urban
agriculture, etc.), projects encouraging inhabitants involvement
can serve to promote biospherical attitudes which will boost the
fight against climate change. It is
therefore desirable to increase the
number of shared family or community garden schemes, and those
part of rehabilitation projects,
flower planting along pavements
or within school projects, the setting up of spaces conducive to pollinators combined with running
beehives and harvesting honey by
local people, skyrise greenery, etc.

See notably the internet portal Nature

in the city http://www.nature-en-ville.
com/content/plan-nature-en-ville , website initiated by the Ministre de lcologie,
du dveloppement durable et de lnergie
(MEDDE) et par le Ministre de lgalit des
territoires et du logement (METL).
Lise Bourdeau-Lepage, Nature(s) en ville,
Mtropolitiques, February 21th 2013. URL :
http://www.metropolitiques.eu/Nature-sen-ville.html

28. Schultz, P. W., Shriver, C., Tabanico, J. J.,

& Khazian, A. M. (2004). Implicit connections with nature. Journal of environmental
psychology, 24(1), 31-42.

Note n5 - September 2015

ment, joining environmental organisations and taking practical steps

in favour of environmental protection. Any actions taken by those
holding the second attitude will conform to the values held by consumer society.
From a broader perspective, in 2004 a team headed by a californian
professor Wesley Schultz described categories connecting values,
attitudes, world views and behaviour as regards the environment28.
They drew a distinction between the following values:
- Egoistic: values are focused on self and self-oriented goals (me,
my future, my prosperity, my health, etc.).
- Altruistic: values are more focused on others (future generations, humanity, people in the community, children, etc.).
- Biospheric: values are focused on the wellbeing of living things
(plants, animals, marine life, birds, etc.).

The team formulates the hypothesis that a persons involvement in environmental issues depends on the extent to which that person feels
part of the natural environment. In a test designed by the team called
the INS (Inclusion of Nature in Self) scale, research participants had
to indicate their level of connection with nature, or more precisely
a level of their inclusion with nature. The research showed that individuals who associate themselves with nature tend to hold broader
sets of concerns for environmental issues (biospherical attitudes). An
individual with less of an association with nature can be concerned
about environmental issues but these concerns will be more focused
on problems that directly affect the individual.
Environmental values do not merely differ from one individual to
another, but they also vary across different cultures. This difference
is not limited to a dichotomy between western countries and the rest
of the world; even within Western countries, cultural differences may
be significant depending on proximity to the natural environment.
This fact can prove to be an obstacle in international negotiations
over climate change, as can for example, very different attitudes to
time (tendency to look to the past, present or future), hierarchical
relationships and authority, or indeed social organisations (individualism or collectivism).
Problems relating to climate change have an intrinsic temporal dimension. Our research (ACOCLI) on the role of values in the perception and cognitive representation of climate change has shown an
omportant dimension linked to temporal cognition, and more specifically to temporal orientation. It is based on the following question
can humankind project itself into the future and if so, how far?

Climate change scenarios use different timescales, with predictions

for the short term, the medium term or for 100 years time. We wondered whether individuals could cognitively process these different
timescales, so we questioned our survey participants in Paris, the
Alps, New Caledonia and French Guiana about how they saw the
course of such changes in the next 5-10 years, 30 years and 100 years.
The Parisian participants, of a certain age, told us they were not inte-

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Note n5 - September 2015

Climate change : from perception to action

rested in the problem because they would no longer be around. The

participants from New Caledonia, on the other hand, gave us answers
about changes in the next 30 years, and told us their predictions for
the next 100 years or, if they were not able to do so, told us that 100
years was too far ahead to provide a well-considered answer. Not one
of them, however, answered that the problem was of no interest because they would no longer be alive. This difference in the representation of climate change depending on timescales is extremely important, because it indicates opposite attitudes to temporal orientation.
Parisians have a dimension that is oriented to the present. The timescale is their own lifetimes. New Caledonians, although they might
struggle to predict the course of climate change, have a continuous
temporal orientation, between the past, the present and the future
and think about events against an intergenerational timescale.
In the issue of climate change, and more generally with a view to protecting the natural environment, the development of values and attitudes plays a key role in ensuring trans-generational environmental
concern of a kind able to generate long-term commitment to addressing environmental problems.

The author
Annamaria LAMMEL
Senior lecturer and accredited research director in cross-cultural
psychology (University of Paris 8) and researcher at the Paragraphe

Laboratory.
Annamaria Lammel is an anthropologist and holds a doctorate in cognitive
psychology.
She is one of the leading authors of the fifth IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel
on Climate Change) report.

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