Geography Education and Climate Change: Bridging Psychological Distance and Promoting Mitigation Behaviors

Behavioral change toward low-carbon lifestyles is a key strategy for addressing climate change. Individuals encounter numerous barriers to such change, however, one of which is the psychological distance of climate change—where it is perceived as abstract, distant, and irrelevant. As attempts to reduce psychological distance have produced mixed results, bridging this distance—enabling individuals to perceive and relate to climate change as a concrete and connected issue—could offer a more effective approach. This study examines the role of geography education in addressing these challenges. Using survey data from the Taiwanese public (N = 579), the study investigates whether a positive experience of learning geography promotes climate change mitigation directly, and whether it does so indirectly through cultivating the sense of global connectedness, which helps bridge the psychological distance of climate change. The results indicate that the experience of learning geography is positively associated with the sense of global connectedness. Moreover, global connectedness partially mediates the relationship between the experience of learning geography and behavioral motivation. These findings suggest that providing quality geography education can be an effective pathway to addressing complex climate change challenges, including behavioral change and psychological distance.