Personality plays a role in whether people believe in climate change, a recent study has found — and that could have implications for efforts to combat climate skepticism.
The research from Dalhousie University in Halifax found people who are more skeptical about climate change are more likely to rank higher on scales of narcissism, machiavellianism and psychopathy — traits that reflect a tendency to be self-centred, manipulative, callous and socially aversive.
People who are less skeptical about climate change are more likely to have pro-social personality traits of openness, agreeableness, honesty, humility and emotionality.
Scott Pruysers is an associate professor in the political science department at Dalhousie University and the lead author of the study, published in March in the journal Climatic Change.
He says understanding the personality roots of climate skepticism can help develop more effective strategies to encourage environmentally conscious behaviour.
“The precursor to developing good policy or understanding why people care about this issue is understanding who doesn’t care about it, who remains skeptical,” he said. “And so we’re going to have to get kind of creative and smarter with the messaging.”
How the study was done
The researchers analyzed data from a survey of 1,725 Canadians conducted in 2020.
The survey respondents were asked to rate how much they agreed or disagreed with the following statements:
- I am certain that climate change is happening.
- Claims that human activities are changing the climate are exaggerated.
- Floods and heat waves are not increasing; there is just more reporting of it in the media these days.
- Climate change is just a result of natural variation in the climate.
- Climate change is a scam.
- Government should do more to address climate change.
Pruysers says while researchers have previously looked at the roots of climate skepticism, some of those studies had limitations that the Dalhousie study tried to overcome.
While other studies have relied primarily on undergraduates as participants, his study ensured the participants reflected the income, gender and age distribution of the Canadian population.
Participants were also asked questions that were aimed at assessing their personality. While previous studies have used as few as 10 descriptors (for example, reserved/quiet, or disorganized/careless) to assess personality, Pruysers’s study used more robust measures that included more than 160 descriptors.
Scientific consensus
There is worldwide scientific consensus that the Earth’s climate is changing, and that human activity has unequivocally caused climate change.
The United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which produces assessments written by hundreds of leading scientists, has found that climate change is a threat to human well-being and planetary health, and that changes must be made to ensure a liveable and sustainable future.
The Dalhousie study found that more than 20 per cent of participants believe claims that human activity is changing the climate are exaggerated, 17 per cent believe climate-related events such as floods or heat waves are not increasing, and more than 10 per cent disagree that governments should be doing more to address climate change.
More recent data has also found similar levels of skepticism among Canadians and dwindling concern about climate change.
Different strategies may be needed
Demographic and political factors do affect climate skepticism. For instance, the study found that men and people who are more right wing are more skeptical, while those with higher education levels, income and political knowledge are less skeptical.
While the participants’ self-placement on the left-right ideology scale was the factor that most accurately predicted their level of climate skepticism, openness was the second most predictive factor, outperforming factors such as age, education, income and political interest and knowledge. Greater levels of openness were associated with less skepticism of climate change.
The study made it clear to Pruysers that personality does play a role, so in order to convince skeptics to adopt planet-friendly practices, he says different tactics may be needed.
For example, Pruysers said, other research has shown that people who score higher in narcissism are more likely to buy environmentally friendly products if they might be seen and admired by others while doing it.
Pruysers emphasized that the study is not labelling climate skeptics as narcissists or psychopaths.
“When people hear something like narcissism or psychopathy, right, it’s jarring. We’re not talking about clinical levels of these things,” he says.
Rather, he says, the traits are measured on a spectrum and most people will exhibit elements of those traits.
Hard to put findings to use
Matthew Hornsey is a professor in the business school at the University of Queensland in Australia who researches the psychological motivations for rejecting scientific consensus, including climate change skepticism.
He said the Dalhousie study is “one of the more authoritative statements” around the role of personality and climate skepticism and its methodology is more sophisticated than other studies on the topic.
While the data makes it clear there is a relationship between climate skepticism and darker personality traits, and pro-social traits and acceptance of climate science, those relationships are not particularly strong.
“Just because something is there, doesn’t mean it’s a big, big effect,” Hornsey said. “You would have a hard time predicting people’s climate change views just from their personality.”
He said putting the study’s findings to use would be challenging.
“What do you do with this information? You can’t change people’s personalities, and so it’s not easy to have an intervention around that.”
Hornsey did note, however, that developments in artificial intelligence have improved the ability to detect personality from the media people consume and how they write on social media. That ability could be harnessed to develop “micro-targeted” messages based on personality.
“But, you know, that’s a whole can of worms,” he said.
