What makes it so hard for us to respond to climate change?

A psychological perspective on how our time perception is linked to responding to climate change

By Isolde Gottwald, Class of 2022.

Most of us find it hard to respond to temporally distant events. Think of trying to buy Christmas presents before everyone is in a rush and flock to the shopping malls, or booking your next holiday trip – if you’re anything like me, you might end up discovering (year after year) that if you had only booked a little bit earlier, you would have saved a lot of money…

But challenges in responding to temporally distant events not only occur in our personal lives. Even more present is the challenge we are facing in responding to something else seemingly far away in time: climate change.

What are the temporal aspects of climate change?

Climate change is related to serious consequences that are often not directly visible but lie in the future. Generally speaking, climate change is characterised by its extension into the future. The time lag between cause and effect, and the frequency and duration of its impacts make it difficult for us to truly comprehend the impacts. There is less of a sense of urgency.

You might have noticed that climate change reports often refer to specific time spans, such as “2050” or “2100”. These dates are difficult to grasp. These time frames contrast with our usual societal time frames: periodic elections, 40-hour work weeks, educational semesters, etc.

While we perceive climate change as distant on many dimensions, such as geographically, our time perception plays a deeply relevant role. To give you an example, many of us find it difficult to recognise the relationship between behaviour and its consequences if a lot of time passes in between. When it comes to certain kinds of climate protective behaviours such as less flying, it’s impossible to recognise an immediate impact.

Everything will be fine

A lot of us generally have positive expectations about our future, and the future of our families, friends and the place where we live. It is well established that we tend to expect that good things will happen to us. This is called the “optimism bias”. Highly optimistic people are generally less concerned about climate change. But climate sceptics in particular feel less guilty or responsible for climate change. Before drawing a bad picture about optimistic attitudes, experiencing a “moment of truth” shifts optimism in order to deal with potential negative events that are meaningful for us.

What about political attitudes and policy support?

People attribute less value to the exact same outcome if they perceive it as faraway in time. Broadly speaking, policies receive higher support if temporally close. Benefits of environmental policies receive lower support if they intend to have a temporally distant effect compared to a close one. Here’s an example: political initiatives that are oriented towards the next 40 to 50 years, receive less support than those addressed at the next 1 to 10 years. The sooner the intended outcome, the more support policies receive.

But what also comes into play in this regard is political orientation. People with conservative attitudes focus on the past more strongly than the future. They tend to perceive climate change as temporally more distant than people who are more liberal-oriented.

It is both societal and psychological aspects that make it difficult for us to comprehend and respond to distant events. Researching our time perception helps in understanding reasons for insufficient public engagement. These findings are important to engage people in their own capacities.

Now this year, maybe you’ll be early with buying those Christmas presents!