The effect of climate change threat on public attitudes towards ethnic and religious minorities and climate refugees

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Abstract

How does climate change threat affect attitudes towards ethnic and religious minorities and climate change refugees? We show that threatening climate change can have deep psychological effects even among social majority groups in relatively prosperous and peaceful societies. Using three survey experiments with self-identified White British participants (N=616, N=587, and N=535), we demonstrate that social majority members who are exposed to threatening information about climate change (vs. neutral information) and, at the same time, feel little national efficacy over climate change, evaluate more negatively certain ethnic and religious minorities, especially Muslims and Pakistanis. We found the same trend in the evaluation of climate refugees, although it reached statistical significance only in one of the experiments. We explain these reactions as pertaining to groups that are perceived as threatening the salient ingroup and its collective agency. Our research significantly contributes to the literature on the social and political implications of (climate change) threat, especially by focusing on boundary conditions, namely the perception of collective control in case of complex and large threats.

Item Type: Journal Article
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BF Psychology
G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GE Environmental Sciences
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
J Political Science > JC Political theory
J Political Science > JV Colonies and colonization. Emigration and immigration. International migration
Divisions: Faculty of Social Sciences > Politics and International Studies
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): Climatic changes , Climatic changes -- Effect of human beings on , Minorities, Refugees , Environmental refugees, Environmental psychology, Intergroup relations
Journal or Publication Title: Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (GPIR)
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISSN: 1368-4302
Official Date: 2024
Dates:
Date
Event
2024
Available
21 May 2024
Accepted
Status: Peer Reviewed
Publication Status: In Press
Re-use Statement: Posted ahead of print. Shanaah, Sadi, Fritsche, Immo and Osmundsen, Mathias (2024) The effect of climate change threat on public attitudes towards ethnic and religious minorities and climate refugees. Group Processes & Intergroup Relations (GPIR). Copyright © 2024 by SAGE Publications. Reprinted by permission of SAGE Publications. https://journals.sagepub.com/home/gpi Users who receive access to an article through a repository are reminded that the article is protected by copyright and reuse is restricted to non-commercial and no derivative uses.
Access rights to Published version: Restricted or Subscription Access
Date of first compliant deposit: 6 June 2024
Date of first compliant Open Access: 7 June 2024
Funder: This project has been supported by seed funding from the Interacting Minds Centre at Aarhus University and the Department of Social Psychology at the University of Leipzig
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant:
Project/Grant ID
RIOXX Funder Name
Funder ID
UNSPECIFIED
Aarhus Universitet
Related URLs:
URI: https://wrap.warwick.ac.uk/186180/

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