Not here, not to us, maybe not at all: The psychological distance of climate change in relation to environmental engagement

Climate change is a significant environmental issue, and countries reaffirmed the imperative to reduce global emissions in the 2015 Paris Agreement. However, some people are currently reluctant to take personal action to reduce climate change. A possible barrier preventing action is that climate change tends to be perceived as psychologically distant: unlikely to affect people like oneself, near oneself, soon, or at all. We investigated the associations between psychological distance and environmental engagement variables among 2050 New Zealanders. The majority of respondents believed the biggest problem facing the world in the future will be environmental, but fewer reported climate change as an issue for New Zealand now. Furthermore, we show that lower psychological distance predicted greater concern and willingness to act on climate change. Uncertainty about climate change was the strongest negative predictor of environmental engagement. Low social distance, the perception that climate change will affect “people like me”, was the strongest positive predictor. Considerations of how policy makers, non-governmental organisations, businesses and researchers can apply these findings in climate change communications are discussed.