Perceived Mitigation Threat Mediates Effects of Right-Wing Ideology on Climate Change Beliefs

Abstract

Research consistently shows that right-wing ideological adherents are more likely to deny climate change. However, less is known about how right-wing ideological subtypes are uniquely related to climate change denial, as well as what explains these relationships. This study examines whether threat to the socioeconomic system in the form of climate change mitigation policies (Climate Change Mitigation Threat) mediates the relationships between Right-Wing Authoritarianism (RWA) and Social Dominance Orientation (SDO) subtypes and four forms of climate change denial (existence denial, human cause denial, impact denial and climate science denial). U.S. participants (N = 334; Mage = 34.70, SD = 5.98) were recruited via Amazon MTurk. When shared variance in the predictors was accounted for, we found that: (1) Conventionalism (RWA-C) positively predicted all types of climate change denial; (2) Dominance (SDO-D) positively predicted existence denial; (3) Anti-Egalitarianism (SDO-E) positively predicted both human cause and impact denial; and, (4) Aggression (RWA-A) negatively predicted existence denial. All significant direct relationships were partially mediated by climate change mitigation threat, except for the direct paths between SDO-D and existence denial, and RWA-A and existence denial. These findings suggest that right-wing adherents who conform to societal norms and prefer unequal social systems may deny climate change partly due to a perception that mitigation strategies proposed to combat climate change threaten the existing socioeconomic system.

Publication
Journal of Applied Social Psychology
Date