TY - JOUR

T1 - Distance to climate change consequences reduces willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions-Results from an experimental online study from Germany

AU - Heinz, Nicolai

AU - Koessler, Ann Kathrin

AU - Engel, Stefanie

N1 - Funding Information: Funding and support for this research has been received from the Heinrich-Böll-Foundation, the Alexander von Humboldt-Foundation in the framework of the Alexander von Humboldt-Professorship held by Prof. Stefanie Engel and endowed by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, and the Department of Environmental Politics, the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Leipzig, Germany. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.

PY - 2023/4/5

Y1 - 2023/4/5

N2 - Adverse consequences of climate change often affect people and places far away from those that have the greatest capacity for mitigation. Several correlational and some experimental studies suggest that the willingness to take mitigation actions may diminish with increasing distance. However, the empirical findings are ambiguous. In order to investigate if and how socio-spatial distance to climate change effects plays a role for the willingness to engage in mitigation actions, we conducted an online experiment with a German population sample (n = 383). We find that the willingness to sign a petition for climate protection was significantly reduced when a person in India with a name of Indian origin was affected by flooding, as compared to a person in Germany with a name of German origin. Distance did not affect donating money to climate protection or approving of mitigation policies. Our results provide evidence for the existence of a negative effect of distance to climate change consequences on the willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions. Investigating explanations for such an effect, we find that it can be attributed to the spatial rather than the social dimension of distance. Moreover, we find some cautious evidence that people with strong racist attitudes react differently to the distance manipulations, suggesting a form of environmental racism that could also reduce mitigation action in the case of climate change.

AB - Adverse consequences of climate change often affect people and places far away from those that have the greatest capacity for mitigation. Several correlational and some experimental studies suggest that the willingness to take mitigation actions may diminish with increasing distance. However, the empirical findings are ambiguous. In order to investigate if and how socio-spatial distance to climate change effects plays a role for the willingness to engage in mitigation actions, we conducted an online experiment with a German population sample (n = 383). We find that the willingness to sign a petition for climate protection was significantly reduced when a person in India with a name of Indian origin was affected by flooding, as compared to a person in Germany with a name of German origin. Distance did not affect donating money to climate protection or approving of mitigation policies. Our results provide evidence for the existence of a negative effect of distance to climate change consequences on the willingness to engage in low-cost mitigation actions. Investigating explanations for such an effect, we find that it can be attributed to the spatial rather than the social dimension of distance. Moreover, we find some cautious evidence that people with strong racist attitudes react differently to the distance manipulations, suggesting a form of environmental racism that could also reduce mitigation action in the case of climate change.

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85151795521&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0283190

DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0283190

M3 - Article

C2 - 37018169

AN - SCOPUS:85151795521

VL - 18

JO - PLOS ONE

JF - PLOS ONE

SN - 1932-6203

IS - 4

M1 - e0283190

ER -