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  • Evidence for motivated control: Understanding the paradoxical link between threat and efficacy beliefs about climate change

    Author(s)
    Hornsey, Matthew J
    Fielding, Kelly S
    McStay, Ryan
    Reser, Joseph P
    Bradley, Graham L
    Greenaway, Katharine H
    Griffith University Author(s)
    Bradley, Graham L.
    Reser, Joseph P.
    Year published
    2015
    Metadata
    Show full item record
    Abstract
    Studies reveal that the more efficacious people feel in their ability to combat climate change, the more threatened they feel by it. This positive correlation deserves unpacking, given that classic theories position efficacy beliefs as coping appraisals that help manage threats. First, we tested whether the relationship is an artifact of overlap with a latent variable that is implicated in both threat and efficacy: “green” identity. Second, we tested whether efficacy perceptions are (partly) motivated cognitions designed to ameliorate helplessness in the face of threat. Study 1 (N = 4345 Australians) replicated the positive ...
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    Studies reveal that the more efficacious people feel in their ability to combat climate change, the more threatened they feel by it. This positive correlation deserves unpacking, given that classic theories position efficacy beliefs as coping appraisals that help manage threats. First, we tested whether the relationship is an artifact of overlap with a latent variable that is implicated in both threat and efficacy: “green” identity. Second, we tested whether efficacy perceptions are (partly) motivated cognitions designed to ameliorate helplessness in the face of threat. Study 1 (N = 4345 Australians) replicated the positive correlation between threat and efficacy, and showed that the relationships remained after controlling for green identity. Direct evidence for motivated control was found in Study 2 (N = 212 Americans): Participants who read a high-threat message reported more (collective) efficacy than did those who read a climate change message that downplayed threat. Implications for theoretical models of control are discussed.
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    Journal Title
    Journal of Environmental Psychology
    Volume
    42
    DOI
    https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2015.02.003
    Subject
    Social and Community Psychology
    Publication URI
    http://hdl.handle.net/10072/100588
    Collection
    • Journal articles

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