ArticleThe British journal of clinical psychology2024
The impact of anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty on climate change distress, policy support, and pro-environmental behaviour.
Article in The British journal of clinical psychology, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.
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Who cites it
3 citing papers in PubMed.
- Understanding the Link between Environmental Identity, Eco-anxiety, Intolerance of Uncertainty and Mental Well-being.The Psychiatric quarterly · 2026Article
- Values interact with psychological distance and eco-anxiety to promote climate engagement: insights from two experimental studies.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- Intolerance of uncertainty and negative emotions among high school art students during COVID-19 pandemic: a moderated mediation analysis.Frontiers in public health · 2024Article
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Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
objectivesAs the threat of climate change continues to grow, bolstering individual-level support for climate change initiatives is crucial. More research is needed to better understand how individual difference factors, such as climate change anxiety and intolerance of uncertainty (IU), may shape how people perceive climate change and respond to climate change messaging. To date, the majority of published studies have not taken these individual difference factors into consideration, and IU has been particularly neglected in the climate change literature. This study examined the independent effects of climate change anxiety and IU on three climate change-related outcomes: climate-related distress, support for climate change policies, and behavioural engagement.
methodsParticipants were Florida residents (N = 441) who completed an online survey, including measures of climate change anxiety and IU. Participants then watched a video describing climate change consequences and completed three outcome measures: post-video distress, climate change policy support, and behavioural engagement.
resultsControlling for demographic covariates, both climate change anxiety (β = .43, p < .001) and IU (β = .27, p < .001) were associated with greater post-video distress, but only IU independently predicted greater policy support (β = .10, p = .034) and behavioural engagement (β = .12, p = .017).
conclusionsOur findings suggest that IU may be an important factor in promoting pro-environmental behaviour and policy support, but climate change anxiety may increase emotional distress without boosting meaningful behaviours or support. Our findings highlight the potential influence of cognitive factors on climate change engagement and suggest that invoking uncertainty rather than anxiety may be more effective in catalysing effective environmental engagement.
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