Vulnerable but Underrepresented: Psychological Barriers to Climate Activism For Lower Educated People

Evers, Nora (2025) Vulnerable but Underrepresented: Psychological Barriers to Climate Activism For Lower Educated People. Master thesis, Psychology.

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Abstract

Despite being disproportionately affected by the climate crisis, lower educated individuals remain underrepresented in climate activism. This study investigates perceived climate change concern of the educational ingroup and anticipated identity-safety as psychological barriers to their engagement, and tests whether representativeness of lower educated people by a climate activist group can mitigate them. An experiment with a 2 (educational background) x 2 (representativeness) design (N = 451) examined how educational background and representativeness influence perceived group concern of lower and of higher educated people, perceived ingroup concern, identity-safety, and willingness to join a climate activist group. Lower educated people’s concern was underestimated and perceived as lower than that of higher educated people by both lower and higher educated participants. Lower educated participants reported lower perceived ingroup concern, identity-safety, and willingness to join than higher educated participants. Identity-safety fully mediated the effect of educational background on willingness to join, while perceived ingroup concern did not. Representativeness reduced the perceived gap between higher and lower educated people's concerns, but did not moderate educational background's effects on any further outcome variables. Findings suggest that representativeness alone is insufficient to foster lower educated people's engagement. Instead, activist groups must actively create inclusive, identity-safe environments to enable equitable participation.

Item Type:	Thesis (Master)
Supervisor name:	Jans, L.
Degree programme:	Psychology
Differentiation route:	Environmental Psychology (EP) [Master Psychology]
Date Deposited:	07 Aug 2025 14:22
Last Modified:	07 Aug 2025 14:22
URI:	http://gmwpublic.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/5831

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