Trying to live sustainably in a not so sustainable society: dialectical thinking and black-and-white thinking are important for climate engagement among late adolescents

Young people use different thinking strategies to deal with conflicts related to climate engagement. The aim of this study was to investigate whether dialectical thinking, i.e. being able to transcend conflicting thoughts, and black-and-white thinking, i.e. either-or-thinking, are associated with climate engagement, and whether these possible connections remain significant when controlling for well-known predictors of climate engagement (gender, parental descriptive norms, attitudes, perceived knowledge, outcome expectancy and trust in science). Additionally, we investigate if these thinking strategies moderate the relationships between perceived knowledge and climate engagement as well as attitudes and climate engagement. Using survey data from two cohorts of late adolescents, Study 1 focuses on climate-friendly food choices (N = 470) and Study 2 on climate-friendly behavior in general (N = 559). Dialectical thinking was positively, and black-and-white thinking negatively, associated with climate engagement, in most cases also when including control variables. Higher levels of dialectical thinking strengthened the relationship between knowledge and engagement, implying that it might narrow the gap between knowledge and engagement among adolescents. We conclude that considering these thinking strategies in climate education could be important for climate engagement.