Formanski, Felix Johannes (2023) Climate change and the tipping point scenario: Exploring laypeople’s perceptions of the risks associated with nonlinear climate shifts. Master thesis, Psychology.
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Abstract
If global temperatures continue to rise at an unabated pace, climate tipping points could be passed within the coming decades. The threat posed by climate tipping points is in many ways unique, given the global and long-term implications of tipping events. Scholars have previously argued that the characteristics of the threat of climate tipping points make it difficult for laypeople to recognize the true dimensions of this threat. The current thesis presents the results of an empirical study that explored public perceptions of future climate change scenarios that involve tipping events. Participants were confronted with descriptions of two contrasting climate change scenarios: a tipping point scenario in which the successive tipping of climatic systems causes increases in the rate at which global temperatures rise, and a constant change scenario, in which the Earth’s climate changes gradually, with temperatures rising at a steady pace. The results of the study suggest that participants recognized that the successive tipping of climatic systems can lead to a curvilinear increase in global temperatures. Participants furthermore understood that climate change will come with more severe impacts and will be less controllable in a tipping point scenario than in a constant change scenario. Still, participants’ risk ratings for the two scenarios fell into a similar range, which indicates that they did not perceive a qualitative difference between the scenarios. Finally, the order in which the two scenarios were presented did not have a substantial influence on how participants assessed the scenarios. Prior exposure to the description of a constant change scenario did not make participants more or less likely to recognize the risk qualities of the tipping point scenario.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Master) |
|---|---|
| Supervisor name: | Werff, E. van der |
| Degree programme: | Psychology |
| Differentiation route: | Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology] |
| Date Deposited: | 20 Jul 2023 06:54 |
| Last Modified: | 20 Jul 2023 06:54 |
| URI: | http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/2474 |
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