Interactions of emotion and political orientation in predicting intentional climate action

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Climate change is a critical crisis of our time, yet sociopolitical responses to date remain insufficient to support effective mitigation and adaptation. Political identity is among the most prominent predictors of climate beliefs and behavior in previous research, and has become a central facet of research in environmental sociology and environmental social sciences. However, affective intelligence theory suggests that emotion can disrupt or magnify political identity effects, highlighting the complex relationship between political identity, climate beliefs, and behavior. Using a conceptual framework informed by affective intelligence theory, our study analyzed primary survey data collected from respondents in Canada and the United States to examine interactive effects among four discrete emotions and political orientation in predicting climate action. Analysis revealed that emotion significantly moderates the relationship between political orientation and climate behavior. Although political orientation significantly influenced the performance of climate action, intense emotional experiences may attenuate the effect of political identity – differences in action rates are non-significant among conservatives, liberals and moderates who report high levels of anxiety, anger and desire. These findings indicate that strategies to increase emotional engagement with climate change may help to motivate action across the political spectrum, particularly among those with conservative political identity.